Making Coax Cable

[JamesMLV]

Does anybody have any advice as to increacing the quality of coaxial cable (rg6) when making it yourself?  The couple that i've made so far seem to work, but i'm sure i'm losing a bit of the signal in the connections.

[mrmike]

Well, there's only two hard parts to making coax cables.  Stripping it right and terminating it right.  Get either one wrong by too much and you get reflections/loss.  I love Canare's connectors but if you're only going to make a few cables they're really overkill.  The Canare stripper (TS100? I think), however, is the best of all that I've ever used and is worth every penny of the $45-50 you will spend on it if you're making more than a couple cables.  Buy one, set it up right for your cables and use a decent quality connector.  I've had luck with this set from Parts Express for cheaper connectors, though the stripper is so-so.

[jkane]

Personally, what I find most difficult about making my own coax cable is extruding the copper to an even diameter along the entire length.  

[StarvingForHDTV]

Originally posted by jkane
Personally, what I find most difficult about making my own coax cable is extruding the copper to an even diameter along the entire length.  

:rofl:

[Gregg Lengling]

Originally posted by jkane
Personally, what I find most difficult about making my own coax cable is extruding the copper to an even diameter along the entire length.  

Jeff you beat me to the punch...but then again when I read this I was too tired to reply......I don't know of anyone on the board here making their own coax...but then you never know.
:confused:

[JamesMLV]

:bang: Well, at least I know what I'm meaning to say.

[rmentel]

I have the advantage of having nice equipment at work but the way to go is with compression fittings. Tough to find but worth the hassle. I would try a friend, a freind of a friend or anyone else that will have the "cable dude" coming out to their house try and sweet talk him into putting a few end connectors on for you. It takes all of 10 seconds.

[Paul S.]

Originally posted by rmentel
I have the advantage of having nice equipment at work but the way to go is with compression fittings.

What do those look like? Are they like the ones that TWC uses?

[rmentel]

Yes. They have a smooth base to them as opposed to the crimp style (squished) or the even less desireable filed finished on the twist on connectors.
Also the best way to screw up any of these fittings is to have a strand of the shield not get cut and then make contact with the center conductor. You also need to be sure the dielectric material around the center conductor is cleaned from it .

[mhz40]

Originally posted by rmentel
I have the advantage of having nice equipment at work but the way to go is with compression fittings. Tough to find but worth the hassle. I would try a friend, a freind of a friend or anyone else that will have the "cable dude" coming out to their house try and sweet talk him into putting a few end connectors on for you. It takes all of 10 seconds.

Goto Marmax.  51`st & Drexel I think.  Compression fittings WITH proper prep and compression tools are the way to go.  Don't feed RG 6 directly into consumer gear, it'll screw up your input connectors... drop down to 59 for the last few feet.  Take a sample of your cable in, there are tons of 6 and 59 connectors, depending on your exact cable type (shielding, jacket thickness etc...)
Good luck...