Question on MAC-3/G coax from Audioquest

[twker]

Ok, I'm new to this - someone should have told me how hard it can be to fish wires through an insulated wall. (lol) Anyway, done with that though I have one piece of cabling to do. I need to make a component cable. I have everything (including, a cheap cable striper) but could someone tell me what the wire is suppose to be - is it 6, 50 or 58? I cant figure it out and my "cheap striper" keeps cutting too much wire no matter what setting.

thanks for the help

 

[mtrycrafts]

Ok, I'm new to this - someone should have told me how hard it can be to fish wires through an insulated wall. (lol) Anyway, done with that though I have one piece of cabling to do. I need to make a component cable. I have everything (including, a cheap cable striper) but could someone tell me what the wire is suppose to be - is it 6, 50 or 58? I cant figure it out and my "cheap striper" keeps cutting too much wire no matter what setting.

thanks for the help

??? What kind of cable did you pull through the walls? While we may know some things, at least I am still a tenderfoot mind-reader But, my New Year resolution should take care of that by the end of this year. Can you wait until then???

If not, tell us what is printed on the cable. Maybe your cutter is not for that cable? Did the cutter come with instructions? Usually it has several steps, one for the outer jacket, then the shielding is cut then the insulation on the inner wire then that is finally stripped a bit.

 

[JKL1960]

Did anyone tell you to be really careful not to compromise your vapour barrier when fishing wires on an outside wall?

My guess is that you have your stripper upside down. It makes two cuts, a shallow and a deep. The deepest cut is at the top and exposes the main conductor. The shallow cut is at the bottom and exposes the shielding. If you are getting left with just a long single solid wire you probably have the stripper upside down.

I had a stripper upside down once. Now it hurts when I pee.

 

[twker]

Vapor Barrier???

LOL, to late for part of it. When pulling the left speaker the fish got stuck in the insulation. Yup, there's at least two feet of missing insulation. Not much I can do now but the middle of the wall should be nice and toasty

Hey for anyone else thinking of doing this - use a fiberglass pole and not the metal fish. After about 2 hours of banging my head against the wall with the fish I tried a fiberglass pole, took 2 mins. oh well.

Ok, the cable its a 3 X75 coax cable for making my component cable. I got this Ideal cable stripper from Home Depot and the thing doesn't cut when set to 6. It has an adjustment but its not helping at all. For those of you who make your own coax cables what brand name stripper do you use?

 

[mtrycrafts]

Ok, the cable its a 3 X75 coax cable for making my component cable. I got this Ideal cable stripper from Home Depot and the thing doesn't cut when set to 6. It has an adjustment but its not helping at all. For those of you who make your own coax cables what brand name stripper do you use?

I bet those markings on the stripper is for RG type cables. Perhaps you have a different size cable, hence the failed strip job. Not sure what you can do but a careful manual cut?

 

[sjsmithjr]

I'm not familiar with that particular cable, but most of the bundled component cables I've seen are made up with RG-59. (Make sure it's rated for in-wall use before going any further.) I use a Rat Shack 278-248 stripper; looks just like the one on the Audioquest website. That style of stripper requires depth adjustment to get an accurate cut. What's the model number on the Ideal stripper you picked up? Can't really tell you anything about using it without knowing which one you got. By the way, Audioquest has an instructional video for stripping cable on their website.

Fishing cable is a skill. I use tapes, rods, and teflon coated wire. It's not easy, but if you work at you can get the tape on the interior side of the insulation. Depending on the age and location of the house, there may not be a vapor barrier on the interior side of the exterior walls. Did you encounter a layer of plastic when cutting through the sheetrock?

Good luck,
Sam

 

[f0am]

Ahh I did this same thing with my insulation sept I only ran wires threw the insulation, its still all in the wall.
If it makes you feel beter twker, its winter now and I dont notice a difference!