Gadgetory

what's up guys today I am undertaking a new challenge that pushes the limits of even the most enthused of enthusiasts you see after teasing several pictures on my Twitter and Instagram of cables leaving stuff lying around my house you guys insisted that an obligatory sleeving video was in order so today I'll be sleeping my own cables for my own personal desktop and I'll be showing you guys the steps that I took along the way now before anything else a huge thanks to mainframe Kustoms for providing all of the special tools and sleeving being used in this video if you guys are into custom sleeping or looking for a place to get everything you need to start they are a great resource so check them out at mainframe custom comm now for those of you unfamiliar custom cable sleeping is a hobby and artform popular among PC enthusiasts that involves sleeping your cables with a custom aftermarket sleeve for sheer cosmetic win typically the sleeve colors are based around the color scheme of your system adding a beautiful eye catching aesthetic to your rig now there are two basic options when deciding what kind of cables you'll be sleeping you've got your full length cables that run directly from your power supply to your components or cable extensions which link your existing power supply cables to your components acting as a sort of middleman between the two now since this is my first rodeo today I'll just be slaving my cable extensions for my 24 pin ATX motherboard connector and my two 8 pin PCIe connectors for my gtx 780 Ti I'll save the tutorial for sleeping your existing power supply cables for another day now pre sleep cable extensions are available for purchase from manufacturers like Silverstone and BitFenix but you're left with far fewer color options and virtually no customizability the quality of the actual sleeping also takes a huge backseat when compared to something like the lute row customs brand of sleeving that I'll be using today and lastly before we get started bear in mind that you will be incurring some additional cable lengths with these extensions more so than you would if you were simply sleeping full length power supply cables so just make sure that you have enough room in your case for proper cable management before going the extension route all right so to pull all of this off you're going to need quite a few tools and supplies some of which you probably already have lying around the house and others you might have to buy at a specialty store like mainframe Kustoms first thing you'll need is 18 gauge wire how much you need depends on which cable extensions and how many you are slaving the wire will most likely come in one piece on a spool but to save me some time the mainframe team did me the solid of pre cutting and pre crimping all of my wires but don't worry I'll still be going over all of these steps in this tutorial next you'll need the correct number of male and female ATX connector pins for my single 24 pin ATX and two 8 pin PCIe extensions I'll have a total of 40 connection points meaning I'll need 20 male and 20 female ATX pins to get the job done to crimp these pins to the ends of your wires you'll also need a crimping tool this one from Lucho Kustoms did a great job at making perfect crimps every time the only time it didn't make a perfect crimp well it was user error next get an appropriate set of plastic connectors i've got plugs for my 24 pin ATX and both of my 8 pin PCIe extensions my initial intent was to also sleeve a molex extension for this video but due to time constraints I had to leave it behind now in case you secure a wire into a plastic connector and need to remove it I'd highly suggest getting an ATX pin removing tool like this one of course you can easily MacGyver one with a staple if you're cheap like me but having a dedicated tool was super nice to have on hand also vital to the task of sliding cables is the actual sleeving now again I'm using loot row custom zone teleost line which is a four millimeter PT sleeving PT is known for its availability in many different colors and sizes it's resistant to UV radiation chemical degradation and abrasion not to mention it is incredibly cost effective PT sleeving also holds its shape very well which is definitely important for a clean looking PC another very popular sleeping option is paracord but it's typically harder to work with from what I understand so I stayed far away from it for this time around now just as crucial as the sleeves themselves is heat shrink now you do have the option to sleeve your cables with the heat shrink design where the heat shrink is visible or a heat shrink less design where it is not either way you're still going to need it to secure the sleeving to your wire I'm opting for a heat shrink less design because I personally think heat shrink looks hideous but here I have some quarter inch pieces that will only end up using 40 of these when all is said and done I still have more than enough in case I mess up and need extras and this is something you guys should consider when buying your supplies buy more than you need if you need 15 feet of sleeving by 25 feet if you need 40 ATX pins by 60 you are going to mess up and you are going to waste some materials especially if it's your first time sleeping so make sure that you buy more than the bare minimum of supplies rounding out the list of tools that you'll need our fire in the form of a lighter a ruler with millimetre measurements a pair of wire cutters and a good wire stripper the last two things you'll need are a pair of high quality scissors unlike these ones and a razor now that we're finally ready to start getting our hands dirty the first thing you want to do is decide how long you want your extensions to be based on the hardware layout in your case and your personal preference now don't just measure the distance between the plug on your component and the nearest routing hole in your case you definitely want to leave some additional length so that the extensions connector is able to lay completely flat behind your motherboard tray remember a slightly longer cable is typically more forgiving than a slightly shorter one and in case you guys were wondering each of my wires measures exactly 290 millimeters long to measure the wire push it right up against the edge of your ruler so that it's completely straight then use your razor to make a slight indent on the wire where you wish for it to be cut grab your wire cutters and cut along the razor line next use a wire stripper to strip off three millimeters of wire casing on both ends with your ruler measure three millimeters from the end of the wire and mark with a razor starting at your razor mark strip the three millimeters of wire casing off and do the same for the other end now you can proceed to crimping your ATX pins to the wire you'll notice each ATX pin has two sets of wings a long pair and a much shorter pair take a pin and place it on the inside of the crimping tool with all the wings facing inward the loot row customs crimping tool has a little shelf on the inside for the longer set of wings to rest on at this point slowly crimp down the pin until you hear three distinct clicks and go no further remove the pin from the crimping tool and thread one end of the wire inside so that the very tip reaches all the way to the end of the smaller wings then carefully place the wire and pin back inside the crimping tool in the same position as it was before and crimp the pin all the way down if done correctly you'll see that every copper wire has been completely crimped down by the smaller set of wings now go ahead and prep second ATX pin for the other end of the wire remember each wire in your extension should have one male pin at one end and a female pin at the other so again three clicks with the crimping tool but before you go any further you want to make sure that the wings of this second ATX pin are facing the same direction as the first pin we crimped failure to do so might prevent your cables from effectively plugging into their plastic connectors to do this hold the crimped end of the wire down on the table with the wings facing up and firmly slide your fingers down the cable to the other end now that you have a frame of reference of which direction your wires facing place the second ATX pin on the wire wings facing up just the same as the first one and proceed to crimping it all the way down when you're finished you'll have yourself a perfectly crimped wire and can then move on to sleeving measure your sleeving by holding the end of the sleeve up so that it rests directly between the long and short set of wings slide it alongside the wire making sure not to stretch it otherwise it'll end up being too short then use a pair of scissors to cut the other end of the sleeve at the same point right in between the wings with a nicely cut piece of sleeving ready take your lighter and ever so slightly melt both tips of the sleeve you want the flame to barely reach the sleeve and when it does you can feather it down a bit with your fingers this step dramatically helps to seal the ends of your sleeves to prevent fraying now we can move on to the actual sleeving thread the wire through the sleeve to the other end if along the way the wire gets stuck you can help it along by pinching the sleeve half an inch in front of your stuck ATX pin and sliding the sleeve up until you reach your pin at that point pinch down on the ATX pin and simply release your other hand off of the sleeve keep repeating this motion inching your wire through the sleeve until it makes its exit next slide the heat shrink over the ATX pin so the end of it just slightly overhangs the end of your sleeve by about two millimeters hold the heat shrink and sleeve firmly in place with your fingers while using your other hand to melt the end of the heat shrink with a lighter I tried to use the blue part of the flame and held it up to the heat shrink for about six seconds now immediately after this while things are still hot use the wire cutters to cut a line down the excess heat shrink and quickly pull it off what you'll find is that the heat shrink has permanently welded the sleeve to the wire establishing a secure connection between the two now if you've done everything correctly you'll end up with a perfectly sleeved wire that's ready for plugging into your plastic connectors the connectors are keyed meaning that the ATX pins have to be facing a certain way in order to latch into the hole successfully to do this make sure the wings of the ATX pin are facing the same direction as the securing latch on your plastic connectors during this step you should also be conscious of which gender of pin you should be plugging in at all times get a firm hold of your wire as close to the pin as you can for maximum security and slide it in all the way you'll know you've inserted and connected the wire correctly when you hear two faint clicks simultaneously this indicates that the ATX prongs have successfully latched onto the internal connector for quality assurance once the wires in give it a little tug to make sure it's securely in place you can also check the terminal side of the connector to see if all your ATX pins are level finally as a word of caution I should warn you guys that it is extremely important that all of your wires are going to the right place between your two connectors one mismatch could potentially do some serious damage to your system so be sure to triple check that your wires are wired correctly but those are all the steps involved to create awesome-looking extensions and as you guys could probably tell this endeavor is not for the faint of heart it requires a lot of time and even more patience than you might expect after all everything you just saw me do was just for a single wire in a pile of 40 while this was easily one of the most tedious and time-consuming PC related tasks I've ever taken on the end results are quite validating and stunning and having done it now certainly feels like a rite of passage of sorts into the PC modding community speaking of modding I want to thank today's sponsor lynda.com that has nothing to do with modding I know just I'm not good at transitions why don't you mod your life with better learning ok I'm done but seriously lately a lot of you guys have been asking me how do I start my own youtube channel and while much of it does boil down to trial and error while I do this unboxing I will be doing it in my boxers there's an equal amount of technical skill involved like video editing motion graphics and web design lit accom has thousands of tutorials on topics like these that relate directly to the YouTube business model so whether you're trying to start up a tech channel or trying to build your own website since YouTube rolled out their new Terms of Service lynda.com is a great resource for furthering your goals and stuff it's totally free to try with the link that I put in the description below so I cordially invite you guys to check it out but that is going to wrap it up for this video guys as always toss me a like if you found it helpful and let me know what you think of this whole cable slaving business whether you'd be up for the task and wire why not if you have slaved in the past share your experience with the rest of us and how that experience shaped your current view on custom slaving before you guys go check out the description for links below on how to help the channel grow like buying a shirt or bookmarking my Amazon affiliate link and using it when you buy stuff it helps me a lot I'm Kyle with awesomesauce Network thank you guys for watching subscribe to the channel if you haven't already and I'll see you all in the next video you