Even Lower!!! Bulk Cat5 Patch Cables $0.29 each ($50 Min.)

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dude

Diamond Member
Oct 16, 1999
3,192
0
71
Originally posted by: koolio
lets think about how long does it take you to make 1 cable? I think around 10min or more. If u'r running a business, $.36/cable is really cheap compare to the time you pay for a guy to make cables. 1 hr = $6.75/hr (CA rate) = 4 cables (let say 15min/cable) > $.36 x 4 = $1.44 DO THE MATH

Um... it takes me about 10-15 seconds to cut a cable, strip the jacket, line the correct color coded wires up for maximum noise filtering, and crimp the head. It takes many times longer to type this than it does me to make a cable. A complete cable with both ends crimped takes less than 30 seconds...
 

dude

Diamond Member
Oct 16, 1999
3,192
0
71
A boot doesn't do anything except supposedly protect the connectors' ends... but what about the part right after the boot? That gets bent often too if you always plug and unplug it.

Anyways, the boot are very pointless. If you think about it, if you are the one making the cables, the boot cost more than the heads. If the cable goes bad at the head, just cut it and crimp another head on. Plus, how often do you remove these cables from the computer/hub/switch?
 

GermyBoy

Banned
Jun 5, 2001
3,524
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Well sometimes 25' isn't enough. I laid 160 feet between my room and my sisters room today. First time cable maker, and I make them in about 4 minutes total, 3 for one side (had to figure length, etc. of the original cables) and the rest is just copying. I don't see how it could every take someone 10 minutes to make a cable, unless they had like 2 fingers on each hand or something.
 

Caveman2001

Senior member
Dec 24, 2000
582
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You guys are funny.

I bought 84 separate cables. That means 168 individual plugs and boots to put on the ends. Now, you have to pre-measure the lengths to be exact, and put each cable together. To do one cable in 30 seconds is I think a bit faster than a person doing this for a living will work, not to mention you need to test the cable after making it. Let's also remember that to buy a crimper in a store is $40.00 for a reliable tool.

With all the things involved to make a cable (measure the wire, the wire itself, crimping it, installing the boot, testing the cable) I would guess a person good at it, will average maybe 2 minutes on small cables, and up to say 5 minutes on long cables. I'm assuming the average person at home has to get the tape measure out to get the length right, not a professional spooler. So, I think it's fair to say average times to make a cable at home would be 3 minutes (once you're good at it, and I know, I've made cables). So, the actual labor involved isn't much but you have to buy the crimping tool ($20-40) which I'll say $30.00 for the sake of argument, then you have to buy the plugs and boots (one guy mentioned $.20 each in bulk).

Here's a hypethetical:

plugs and boots: $.20 each (if you can find them that cheap)
cable: $.10 per foot (500' roll at Home Depot is $49.70 / 500 = $.0994 per foot)
time: $.34 cents per cable (20 cables per hour divided by $6.75 hourly wage)

So, for each 10' cable we're talking: $1.74 per cable (without including the crimper you need, and any testing equipment). Also, I didn't have to make any of them.

You could lower the time to make the cable to 1 minute and these prices are still better.

Example: 60 per hour divided by $6.75 per hour = $.11 per cable rounded. So you get $1.51 to make a 10ft cable.


Anyone who can make the cable, test it, and bag it in 1 minute or less, isn't going to work for $6.75 per hour most likely. Frankly, buying this way saved me tons of time and money because my time is worth more to me than $6.75 per hour anyway.

This was/is a great deal!!

 

clutz123

Senior member
Sep 29, 2000
713
0
0
yeah, it was a great deal, but i don't have much need for a bunch of 5 ft cables :( those fifty footers sounded nice...
 

Rorschach

Member
Jun 21, 2000
85
0
0
So shipping on these was pretty brutal from AZ, somewhere around $20-25 to Maryland. Ouch! Did anyone else get a box full of smelly cables? These things reek like plastic. Any ideas on how to get rid of the smell?
 

jbeach3

Member
Oct 5, 2001
26
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0
Caveman, I am with you. As an IT manager who has a choice between buying these cables (with a lifetime warranty!) and "rolling my own", I'll gladly pick buying them! Yes, it's easy to do and no, it doesn't take a lot of time, but my time is worth a lot more than $6.75 an hour. (And when I had one of the guys that works for me -- paid $10.00 an hour -- make my cables, the ones he made were nowhere near this clean and they took a lot longer than 30 seconds each.) Bottom line is that if you want professional grade patch cables (which I did because I had to replace the ones that this guy did for 50+ workstations) this is a great deal.

Rorschach, I got smelly cables, too! :D After plugging 50 of them into a nice warm wiring closet, it smelled even better! :p But after 2 days, the smell was totally gone. (I just hope that your cables aren't going to be in your bedroom or anything!)
 

Caveman2001

Senior member
Dec 24, 2000
582
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I went out and bought stuff to make my own because I do enough work for friends and family that it's pretty nice to have them around for spur of the moment stuff. I bought a set of cimpers (proffesional quality) for $42.95, cat 5e cable 100' for $20.00, and plugs 50 for $20.00. So, there's $90.00 just to be able to make some cables. Granted in the long run it will get cheaper for every cable I make, but that's a pretty hefty initial expense, so make sure you're going to be making lots of cables before you buy the stuff.

The first cable took me about 15 minutes because it's been long enough since I made a cable that I kinda had to re-learn. Thankfully, I didn't make any duds, which was worth the extra time IMO. All in all, I would say the average person at home is going to take 3-5 minutes per cable once you've done a couple. This is a classic example because how often does a home user make cables anyway; not often I'm sure. There's probably going to be some re-learning time involved for everyone when they make cables infrequently.

I must say it was kinda fun to make a couple cables for kicks, plug them in and see them work properly. However, I wouldn't want to do that for a F/T job.

 

wshtb

Member
Apr 25, 2002
56
0
0
<< I was about to buy tools to make cables when I work for my company. But lets think about how long does it take you to make 1 cable? I think around 10min or more. If u'r running a business, $.36/cable is really cheap compare to the time you pay for a guy to make cables.

1 hr = $6.75/hr (CA rate) = 4 cables (let say 15min/cable) > $.36 x 4 = $1.44

DO THE MATH >>



I believe you can do it in less than 2min/cable after 30 min practice. So the math is :

1 hr = 6.75 = 30 cable <$.36 x 30 = $10.80

Not too much saving but you have full control on the cable length.
 

randomlinh

Lifer
Oct 9, 1999
20,846
2
0
linh.wordpress.com
if these are manufactured, it's a lot less of a PAIN then making them yourself. There was a lot of talk about this in the networking forums.. how self made cables are very difficult to get up to standard.. and how it is usually the source of slow downs in your network.

Now, really depends if you care about that or not. The cables i make are close to full speed. I use a really cheap crimp and bulk heads that came with it. Cheap crimp is a pain sometimes.. it'll miss some of the pins.

Good deal if all you need is a bunch of cat5

Linh
 

Gtroop

Member
May 2, 2001
56
0
0
Awesome deal.
They still have 3, 5, 7, 10, 14, 25, and 100 ft. cables on sale. Shipping ups ground from az to ca should take about a day or two. Thanks!
 

EvanGeliSt

Golden Member
Jun 24, 2002
1,048
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0
Woe this is awesome.

Real cheap cables... gonna share with my housemates to create LAN in the house =)

:D *CSing time!
 

dude

Diamond Member
Oct 16, 1999
3,192
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71
For all you guys that really do measure a cable, do as I do: If you get a spool of cable, grab one end in the palm of your hand and wrap the wire down to your elbow and back up again to your palm. That will be 2 feet, give or take an inch or three.

I don't see how people take so long to make a cable (10-15 minutes?!?!)
I cut the starting end, strip the jacket, align the wires for universal standard color code, cut the aligned wires, insert the RJ-45 head on, crimp. 30 seconds. I have a feeling many of you are having problems at sorting and aligning the color wires.
It is (telephone technician coding) White Orange, Orange, White Green, Blue, White Blue, Green, White Brown, Brown. Also known as Orange Stripe, Orange, Green Stripe, Blue, Blue Stripe, Green, Brown Stripe, Brown.
 

huesmann

Diamond Member
Dec 7, 1999
8,618
0
76
Does anyone else have the feeling that Fleabay is going to have a glut of these on the site?
 

dude

Diamond Member
Oct 16, 1999
3,192
0
71
Anyone ever do 25 pair wiring? Now that is fun! Trying not to go cross-eyed looking at 50 wires and color coding them! :confused:
 

LordSmoit

Junior Member
Jun 17, 2002
12
0
0
Bah - just called and they say it's a $100 minimum now, or a 5 dollar surcharge.

I'm over in florida, so shipping would be steep anyways. I guess I'll have ot wait for another good deal to come around, or think about this some more.
 

BlackNinja

Senior member
Oct 28, 1999
279
0
0
Originally posted by: Caveman2001
You guys are funny.

I Let's also remember that to buy a crimper in a store is $40.00 for a reliable tool.

!!

Actually i just got a crimper at Directron.com yesterday for 10 dollars and they're the same quality as the one i would get at Frys for $39.99

BTW.. could anyone tell me where they have the wiring diagram for crossover ?
 

Daniel

Diamond Member
Oct 10, 1999
3,813
0
76
Originally posted by: dude
For all you guys that really do measure a cable, do as I do: If you get a spool of cable, grab one end in the palm of your hand and wrap the wire down to your elbow and back up again to your palm. That will be 2 feet, give or take an inch or three.

I don't see how people take <STRONG>so long</STRONG> to make a cable (10-15 minutes?!?!)
I cut the starting end, strip the jacket, align the wires for universal standard color code, cut the aligned wires, insert the RJ-45 head on, crimp. 30 seconds. I have a feeling many of you are having problems at <STRONG>sorting and aligning the color wires.
</STRONG> It is (telephone technician coding) White Orange, Orange, White Green, Blue, White Blue, Green, White Brown, Brown. Also known as Orange Stripe, Orange, Green Stripe, Blue, Blue Stripe, Green, Brown Stripe, Brown.

It surely doesn't take me 10-15 mins but I can't imagine doing ends in 30secs either, maybe I just have clumsy fingers but it takes me a few mins each.