The cheapest way to get cables is to know somebody who crimps it themselves, but for the majority of people probably buy from shitty places like walmart for a 1,000% upcharge.
just a heads up for anyone deciding to make their own cables, make sure you buy pass through rj45 ends or it becomes substantially more annoying to make a successful crimp. with pass through you can prep your cable and it doesn’t matter how long you make the strands you’re working with because you cut the excess off, with non-pass through you have to cut them to a specific size and if it’s too long when they bottom out, your conductors will stick out making your crimp weaker inviting poor connection issues later in the cable’s life.
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I like the ones that have a separate little sleeve with a pass though. You put the wires through it, clip them, then insert it as a unit into the connector.
Alright but I’m storing enough tools and large coils of various cable/wire at my home so I’m going to pass until I move into a bigger place. I don’t even work in IT so I’d probably snip one segment and have the rest laying around forever. Still cheaper than buying finished cables at the store, though, I give you that.
You can hire low voltage writing contractors to do it, they usually charge per run (up to a certain length), and they only leave you with what you will use. They’re a bit more costly, since you’re paying for their time, but it will save you the hassle of buying tools, learning how to use them, buying cable, running the line, doing the crimping (usually several times as you will probably mess up at least a few), and everything.
Saves a bunch of headaches… just an option I’ll throw out there.
Don’t hire an electrician for the work, most don’t understand the requirements of low voltage or ethernet, they’re simply not trained for it. They can wire up your fridge or whatever perfectly great, but the rules that apply to high voltage are very different than what is needed for low voltage… specifically Ethernet.
…no seriously if you want to buy a crimper spend 10 bucks upwards or so, people have spent more on screwdrivers. A knipex one costs about 30 bucks, we’re not talking fibre splicers here. Regarding outlets, those 10 buck LSA Plus things are perfectly fine. Finagling those things with a flathead is way harder if you want more than an electrical connection but actual signal quality.
It’s not that you can’t get crimpers that cheap here (cheapest I found on Amazon is 3.50 Euros, incl. 19% VAT) it’s that they’re almost guaranteed to be made from chinesium with the engineering and manufacturing precision to match. There’s a difference between inexpensive and cheap.
Or ensuring the spool is still useful 15 years later while everything has migrated to SFP/QSFP
Nah, the remaining spool will be useful for the rest of its/your lifetime, it always comes in handy as a generic 4-pair twisted pair signal cable for any non-ethernet purpose. I’ve used my old spool twice this year; first for an m-bus cable to my power meter and then for a limit switch for my garage door.
That’s me lol. I’m still sitting on my spool of Cat6 I bought a few years ago. At pre-COVID prices it was approximately (CAD) $1 per termination, and $1 per 6 feet of cable.
Today at Infinite Cables and other Canadian stores I can buy premade lengths at almost those costs, shockingly. Prices really came down.
The cheapest way to get cables is to know somebody who crimps it themselves, but for the majority of people probably buy from shitty places like walmart for a 1,000% upcharge.
just a heads up for anyone deciding to make their own cables, make sure you buy pass through rj45 ends or it becomes substantially more annoying to make a successful crimp. with pass through you can prep your cable and it doesn’t matter how long you make the strands you’re working with because you cut the excess off, with non-pass through you have to cut them to a specific size and if it’s too long when they bottom out, your conductors will stick out making your crimp weaker inviting poor connection issues later in the cable’s life.
thank you for tuning in for this controls tech tip
I like the ones that have a separate little sleeve with a pass though. You put the wires through it, clip them, then insert it as a unit into the connector.
Like these.
Those are the way.
I bought a bulk bag of the shitty kind. Worst purchase of my life. I was too stubborn to throw them out and it took a decade+ to get through them all.
Crimper costs you about 2$, rj45 connectors cost 0.05$ and cable costs 0.1$/meter. Not that much.
Alright but I’m storing enough tools and large coils of various cable/wire at my home so I’m going to pass until I move into a bigger place. I don’t even work in IT so I’d probably snip one segment and have the rest laying around forever. Still cheaper than buying finished cables at the store, though, I give you that.
You can hire low voltage writing contractors to do it, they usually charge per run (up to a certain length), and they only leave you with what you will use. They’re a bit more costly, since you’re paying for their time, but it will save you the hassle of buying tools, learning how to use them, buying cable, running the line, doing the crimping (usually several times as you will probably mess up at least a few), and everything.
Saves a bunch of headaches… just an option I’ll throw out there.
Don’t hire an electrician for the work, most don’t understand the requirements of low voltage or ethernet, they’re simply not trained for it. They can wire up your fridge or whatever perfectly great, but the rules that apply to high voltage are very different than what is needed for low voltage… specifically Ethernet.
Pffft flathead screwdriver.
…no seriously if you want to buy a crimper spend 10 bucks upwards or so, people have spent more on screwdrivers. A knipex one costs about 30 bucks, we’re not talking fibre splicers here. Regarding outlets, those 10 buck LSA Plus things are perfectly fine. Finagling those things with a flathead is way harder if you want more than an electrical connection but actual signal quality.
We live in different economies
It’s not that you can’t get crimpers that cheap here (cheapest I found on Amazon is 3.50 Euros, incl. 19% VAT) it’s that they’re almost guaranteed to be made from chinesium with the engineering and manufacturing precision to match. There’s a difference between inexpensive and cheap.
For me, its more running lines through the walls of my old house.
Depending on local building codes, you can run them through vents so long as they’re fireproof coated, but TBH that’s pretty silly.
I’ll just say: attic. That’s all.
Going to be tricky dropping cables from the attic of my three story house into my first-floor home office.
Up from the basement?
If it’s an unfinished basement, easy. If it’s finished, that feels bad man.
Pretty sure the biggest cost of crimping your own cables is finding a place to store the remaining spool.
Or ensuring the spool is still useful 15 years later while everything has migrated to SFP/QSFP
Nah, the remaining spool will be useful for the rest of its/your lifetime, it always comes in handy as a generic 4-pair twisted pair signal cable for any non-ethernet purpose. I’ve used my old spool twice this year; first for an m-bus cable to my power meter and then for a limit switch for my garage door.
That’s me lol. I’m still sitting on my spool of Cat6 I bought a few years ago. At pre-COVID prices it was approximately (CAD) $1 per termination, and $1 per 6 feet of cable.
Today at Infinite Cables and other Canadian stores I can buy premade lengths at almost those costs, shockingly. Prices really came down.