where to buy expandable sleeving?

[danomite664]

I don't know if anyone has been to xoxide.com or not, but I was wondering if anyone knew a good place to find the expandable sleeving like what they sell there. I need both 1/2" and 1/4", and the chrome is fine for one computer i'm doing, but I would like to find blue for another one. Does anyone know any stores/websites that sell it fairly cheap?

[phoenix111384]

www.svc.com

[Serraph]

also www.wirecare.com Go into the section called Flexo Pet.

[rugbyroy]

go to svc. you can't beat them. You might want to get some heat shrink tubing as well.

[BlueWraith]

Autozone and other car stores also sell it.

[dmginc34]

I hear the stuff svc carries is cheap quality. Im just gonna buy mine at frozencpu because i live like 15 mins away, and its only about 5$ more. Not to mention they actually carry blue UV reactive.

[FunkDaMonkMan]

you MAY be able to find some at an auto store, however, i was only able to find split wire loom, and i went to 3 stores.

[phoenix111384]

Originally posted by dmginc34
I hear the stuff svc carries is cheap quality. Im just gonna buy mine at frozencpu because i live like 15 mins away, and its only about 5$ more. Not to mention they actually carry blue UV reactive.

svc's stuff seems to be pretty good quality to me. I hate frozencpu's shipping costs ... so damn expensive especially for only sleeving. SVC is only $.75 for first class mail and i get it in two days

[dmginc34]

i live 15 mins away from frozencpu so i cant comment on the shipping ;)

[phoenix111384]

Originally posted by dmginc34
i live 15 mins away from frozencpu so i cant comment on the shipping ;)

lol very true

[danomite664]

ok, i got my expandable sleeving from SVC.com (which by the way was cheap on shipping but only sent me one email and never gave me any tracking number or anything, which had me worried) but havent actually put it on all my power calbes yet. does anyone have any advice on doing this mod?

[G@ZZ@]

I did the same mod on my psu, check out my guide I made

PSU Sleeving Guide (www.pcbritt.com/sleeveguide.htm)

[notasparagus]

Here is another guide that Maximum PC did, very clear and well done.

Maximum PC Sleeving Guide (http://lib1.store.vip.sc5.yahoo.com/lib/xoxide/wiresleeve.pdf)

[BlueWraith]

I got my sleeving from autozone.. Not the best quality, but at least the heatshrink wasnt the worst I've used before.
My only 2 complaints about the autozone brand.. its a really really stiff plastic, not a cloth like I was expecting. Also, theres only 5 feet of it. I took the 2 'branches' of power wires and bundled them as one until they reached the first set of molex, then branched off and made 2 more. Didn't have enough heatshrink to do the floppy drive wires, but they are hidden kinda.

If I had to do it over, I'd buy it online and get about 10 feet just for security... and a couple feet of heatshrink for security as well.

I like the way the molex are setup on mine though. The power to my HDD has the floppy power directly off it, so I only have one bundle going below the 5.25" cage. Keeps it nice and clean. I'll have my computer up at college tomarrow so I'll try to snag some pics while I'm up there.

[blackhabit]

i was thinking of doind this eventually maybe when i get some time lol

[dmginc345]

it really doesnt take too long, about an hour once you get going. the atx cable can be a pain, make sure you have a nice diagram or something to get all the cables in right again.

[Daemonfly]

Got mine from Case-mod.com & it's pretty good quality. Both 1/4" & 1/2" in 4ft lengths. Possible to get same quality cheaper somewhere else.

[arabarabian]

www.svc.com does have a good selection of coolnig products which includes sleeaving.

Thank You,
Daniel

[danomite664]

SVC.com is where i got my expandable sleeving from, but now i need to find a place to get some clear heatshrink tubing. I plan on doing 2 computers, but the blue heatshrink i got wont look good with the one computer. Any suggestions of stores to get heatshrink tubing at?

[phoenix111384]

svc sells heatshrink tubing too, and in 13 different colors i believe.

[G@ZZ@]

Originally posted by danomite664
SVC.com is where i got my expandable sleeving from, but now i need to find a place to get some clear heatshrink tubing. I plan on doing 2 computers, but the blue heatshrink i got wont look good with the one computer. Any suggestions of stores to get heatshrink tubing at?


maybe you should have read my guide that clearly states where I got my clear heatshrink tubing from :D


www.cableorganizer.com (http://www.cableorganizer.com/heat-shrink/)

[danomite664]

im sorry if mine was confusing, i meant local stores, not ordering online. I ordered some blue from SVC.com, but decided that for my own computer, i should use clear. I didnt want to have to wait however long it takes to get it online, so i was trying to find a local store where i could just go buy it. So far radio shack, napa, and advance auto parts don't have what i need. I'm still gonna try wal-mart, home depot, and ace hardware.

[danomite664]

well, no luck at any of those places. Some didnt have any, some had some, but they were assorted packages, not the colors or sizes i wanted, and a couple had the sizes i wanted, but only in black. Looks like its back to SVC to get some more

[danomite664]

ok, now im getting really ticked. I went to a few places online, and none are as cheap as SVC but they are out of the 1/4" heatshrink right now. Other places are over $7 for the cheapest shipping. So my question now is this, should i just stick with the blue that i have and get it over with, or should i just wait and order more (which would also be more expensive)?

[G@ZZ@]

You can get some clear heatshrink tubing from RadioShack but it only comes in a 6" section in a pack of 12 with Red, white, blue and . 1/16" to 1/4" diameter.

278-1610 (http://www.radioshack.com/product.asp?catalog%5Fname=CTLG&category%5Fname=CTLG%5F011%5F010%5F008%5F002&product%5Fid=278%2D1610)

[Zeta09]

MIght be a silly question but here it goes anyway. . .

Ok I want to get mine by next week and SVC doesn't seem to have black in stock. Will probably get mine from cable organizer but I want to get the Braided sleeving correct? Wire loom is the plastic ribbed stuff correct? I want the sleeving to match the Enermax PSUs that I have now.

I also see that many of the tutorials speak of taking off all the leads from all the connectors. What about taking each length inbetween connectors and wrapping them then moving onto the next connector?

Thanks in advance. . .

[danomite664]

yes, you need to buy expandable sleeving and yes you need to take off the molex connectors. I just finished sleeving (most of) mine yesterday. Didn't turn out too bad, but if you want, i will direct you to some tutorials and i will give you some pointers that i learned from doing mine. Mine didnt turn out the best because i wasnt exactly sure what i was doing. I'll test to see if my skills improved when i do my girlfriends this week :)

[Zeta09]

I would never say no to good advice. If you just did your's last week tell me what you know and any tutorials will be welcome.

As far as tutorials go, I already had one from Virtual Hideout, and there is another one from systemcooling.com that I have as well.
So if there are others then let me know and send me links. Real world experience though is what I am after. Thats why I am on these forums.

I have 3 comps to do so I was going for 10ft of sleeving and 5 ft of heat shrink. Do you all think that would be enough?

Another question for me is when I have gone to wirecare.com they seem to have several types of expandle sleeving (Flexo PET, Reflex, Kevlar, etc.). Is there really a difference? (I can tell the difference in some to the titles; Metal braid', Clean cut, Flexo FR)Thanks again.

[danomite664]

ok, first of all, you will have to make sure that you get 2 sizes of sleeving, the 9mm for all the power cables, and the 18mm for the atx cable (im sure the tutorials already said that). Second, 10 feet probably should be enough, i know i only need about 5 for all of mine (of the 9mm at least) but it's nice to buy some extra in case you mess up or the sleeving starts to fray at the ends (which mine did). A few pointers, make sure you slide the heatshrink for the one end either before or while you do the sleeving, otherwise it's too hard to slide over the sleeving. Second, either do the trick where you expand the end of the sleeving and then melt it to prevent fraying, or just once you get it on, put a little bit of black electrical tape around the end (it will get covered up with the heatshrink tubing). Third, even though most guides say to go with the sleeving about half an inch away from the molex connector, i would put a little bit extra on; if it does start to fray, and you dont want to redo it, you can cut off the little bit extra that started to fray. Fourth, i would highly recommend using a pin extractor (you can buy it at radio shack). it makes popping out the cables from the molex heads SO much easier. Fifth, when shrinking the tubing around the ends, be careful of how you do it. I didnt have a heatgun, or even a good lighter to use, so i used my stove. It worked alright for the most part but the flame jumped a bit and actually melted part of my sleeving. that's what made mine not look the best. to top it all off, i already had all the molex heads back on so i couldnt just slide the cable off and redo it, so i just left it. I think that's all the pointers i have, if you have any questions, feel free to PM me.

[danomite664]

oh, and another thing, i used the flexo pet sleeving from SVC.com and it worked pretty well. and while i'm at it, i still haven't done my atx cables, does anyone have any good ideas on how to pop the cables out of that connector? im stumped so far

[notasparagus]

For links to tutorials scroll up :)

[Zeta09]

Well.

I am done and ater a few test runs to perfect technique I am pleased with the results. I got my sleeving from cableorganizer.com. Looks ten times better and hopefully it will improve airlow. I had, however, messed up on one of the leads and reinserted it in the wrong place thus I fried one of my older burners. No matter though I wanted to get a new one anyway but although it can be hard to keep track

I would recommend that every one trying this for the first time make sure to look at the numbers on the molex connectors just to make sure. I don't believe (correct me if I am wrong) the two ground (black) wires are that important as they may be crossed but the red and yellow wires must be aligned properly or you will be like me and fry the unit.

[danomite664]

what did you do for your ATX cable and your 12v connector?

[Zeta09]

Yeah Dano,

I have an Enermax PSU so it was already sleeved. I don't use the ATX so I just have that wire tied. If it wasn't I would not mess with that bad boy although I am sure there is some tutorial on the net that could give some guidance as to how to do it.

[danomite664]

by atx i meant the one for the motherboard ( i think tahts the name for it anyway). and i have looked at a couple tutorials, but the methods they use either arent available to me or just dont work, thanks anyway though

[Zeta09]

Yeah Dano,

That is what I meant.

The Enermax PSUs have the ATX connector for the mobo sleeved already.

[danomite664]

but you said you didnt use the atx connector, which confused me. if you dont use the atx connector, how do you power your motherboard?

[phoenix111384]

i think he meant the AUX connector. as for the 12v connector when i sleeved my psu, i had to cut little pieces of thin plastic to unlock those tabs...rather annoying.

[Zeta09]

Yes Phoenix I know what he meant but with my Enermax I had the ATX connector sleeved already the AUX connector as I said I have wire tied and out of the way. I do have a pentium board but I will conceed not sleeving the AUX on that one.

Essentially you could just wire tie everything if you really wanted to, to accomplish a similar result but I just like projects and it looks better sleeved.

[danomite664]

yeah, i already have all the other power cables sleeved, so i want to do the mobo connector as well, just to keep a consistent look