Painting own 6mm guitar/instrument cable 6mm

[darren adcock]

Hi all, just wondering if anyone paints/sprays their own cable? I have a need to paint some 6mm guitar/instrument leads I'm going to be putting together next week and wondered if anyone has experience with what type of paint/spray works best?

Thanks in advance

Darren

 

[dave9]

If they are vinyl insulated then I would use spray vinyl dye from an automotive store. It seeps into the vinyl so it's more resistant to cracking and peeling. You do have to settle for whatever colors you can find as it is not typically available in every color of the rainbow. Common colors are what you'd expect for automotive, one shade of each black/white/gray/silver/brown/blue/red etc... at least in the US, I don't know what you have there.

I am wondering what is wrong with the cable unpainted? Too hard to see and getting tripped over?

 

[darren adcock]

If they are vinyl insulated then I would use spray vinyl dye from an automotive store. It seeps into the vinyl so it's more resistant to cracking and peeling. You do have to settle for whatever colors you can find as it is not typically available in every color of the rainbow. Common colors are what you'd expect for automotive, one shade of each black/white/gray/silver/brown/blue/red etc... at least in the US, I don't know what you have there.

I am wondering what is wrong with the cable unpainted? Too hard to see and getting tripped over?

Thanks Dave

It's two fold, I can buy a bulk load of black cable much cheaper than of separate colours, I would like to have a more varied range of colour's to choose from when patching my synthesiser. Plus when I start adding motors to my synthesiser circuits I'll need to be able to differentiate between which leads have a higher current rating.

The 'tripping over' is me tripping over my mind looking at all the spaghetti covering my synth at times!

 

[73's de Edd]

Sir darren adcock . . . .
Would just a short length of appropriately color coded heat shrink at each end of a cable at the connectors suffice ?
With one additional in the center of the cable length, if that area is of any importance .
73's de Edd

 

[darren adcock]

Sir darren adcock . . . .
Would just a short length of appropriately color coded heat shrink at each end of a cable at the connectors suffice ?
With one additional in the center of the cable length, if that area is of any importance .
73's de Edd

Hey 73's de Edd, I've utilised this a little, definitely worth further consideration as would be much easier. I'll try it out tomorrow more and see it is a viable solution. Thanks.

 

[73's de Edd]

Sir darren adcock . . . . .

Further excerpts . . . . taken directly out of my BIG playbook . . .

Heat shrink comes in the common variety that the general public is familiar with, also there is the polyolefin type with its inner coating that liquifies and flows around any internal connections and then sets upon drying, while the outer portion does the outer shrinking. This last poly type usually is only seen and used by the military and aerospace industries, unless one seeks it out.
Fortunately, the common - - - - FLAT matte finish - - - - heat shrink is the type which would be used..
The color choice is being the flat white . . . .BECAUSE . . . . it will accept almost any type of paint which you want to coat it with, for your color coding. Acrylic comes to mind, for color choices or color mixes, plus it resists cracking.
I have even used all of the Magic Marker color codes, just recoat enough, so that no striping overlaps are evident.

A final touch of class is to BLACK stripe the extreme ends of the color coding or cut and slip on narrow ringlets of
BLACK heat shrink, of the next size large of heat shrink tubing.
Or, you can use the same size as the white, and and slip in two smaller round wooden dowels to permit their spreading and increasing the diameter of the ringlet. Then move fast to install it as it starts shrinking back to normal, almost immediately.
The final coup de grace is a clear heat shrink covering, extending a mite extra over each ends set of ringlets , so that its heated and recovered size, is still extending out past the BLACK ringlets.

Those cables markings will then take the worst of abuse.

With the clear coverings, being able to protect all that is covered within them, I have also typed and labeled over a portion of the color coded area using both Brother or Dymo labelmakers in Size 1 or 2 fonts.

Thaaaaaaaasit . . . . .

73's de Edd
....................

Ya' wanna know the difference between an oral and a rectal thermometer? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ( pause ) . . . . . . . . . . . . . ( think ) . . . . . . . . . . ( more thinking ) . . . . . . . . . EUREKA . . . . .The taste ! ! ! ! !

( Expected response . . . . . . . .e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e wwww)

 

[darren adcock]

Wow, what a great reply. Thanks! Just waiting for my cable to arrive and I'll endeavor to replicate your steps above, and gonna be much cheaper than my initial plan! which is always a bonus! plus I'm really intrigued to see how the extra reinforcement on the ends of the cables/jacks pans out, I don't go through cables too often but it's always in this area they seem to fail. I have a Dymo, really like the idea of being able to slip designations in there. Thanks again!