Would I be able to cut off unecessary end of floppy cable?

[Madcowz]

It has about 5 connectors total and I only need the first 2... so would I be able to snip off the cable in between and have it still work?

 

[Mark R]

Yup.

 

[Bleep]

I just cut them off with a good pair of Kitchen shears. I tape the end to keep anything from shorting. Just about forgot I cut them at about a 15 degree angle/
Bleep

 

[medic]

Done it many times, just use a very sharp pair of scissors to get a clean cut.
Shortened a few IDE cables the same way and had to apply a little liquid tape to the ends otherwise windows kept turning off the DMA setting! (2 different computers)...Must of been a slight amount of interference or crosstalk ect. being picked up (or caused by) the bare ends.

 

[Madcowz]

would I cover the ends with electric tape or just plain tape?

 

[Alphacowboy]

actually the best technic I have found is to run a sharp razor along the connector you are going to keep, it makes it look like you bought it that way

 

[dkozloski]

Early in the PC game, IBM decided to ship all floppy drives with the ID jumpers set the same and to use a twist in the cable before some of the connectors to make the difference between A and B drives. The normal convention was to have the drive closest to the controller be the B drive and the drive out on the end after the twist be the A drive. Since the drives still have select jumpers you should be able to make a cable work just about any way you would like but you might have to fiddle with the jumpers to get the ID right.

 

[Madcowz]

Would it be dangerous to tape the end with electric tape or better?

 

[Ark]

I usually put connector first, after that use sharp knife and cut (slice) along the connector. Works much better than scissors and no exposed wires, don't need a tape.

 

[medic]

If you go to any automotive or electrical supply shop, you can pickup a small can of liquid tape. This has all the insulating and other features of regular electrical tape, except it's a black liquid that you brush on.
I would cut it as the others have mentioned first, and try it out, as it may be fine without it.

 

[jamarno]

You don't need liquid tape over the end, and anyway it won't prevent shorts caused by individual strands of wire that haven't been cut off cleanly. Alphacowboy has the right idea.

BTW, much cheaper than liquid tape is liquid vinyl repair or PVC plastic pipe cement.

 

[medic]

jamarno

If you had read my post, 2 different motherboards would not enable DMA, with the liquid tape they both are still running perfectly with DMA enabled after over a year.
BTW:
Liquid tape sells for $1.79C. for a small can, what's that, a buck U.S.?

 

[Semper Fi]

Hey, good question.
That's a good way to clear some clutter out of the old pc.

 

[Mday]

well, if you want drive A, don't cut anything after the twist, unless you have 2 of something...

i got a long cable, cut off the unwanted waste, and removed some of the connectors, using electrical tape and pressure to secure the crimped parts.

 

[PowerJoe]

A full floppy cable looks like this:

(small connector 1)-----------------------(small connector 2)---(Large connector 3)-----(twist)----(small connector 4)---(Large connector 5)

1 - motherboard
2 or 3 - drive B:
4 or 5 - drive A:

Since no-one cares about dual-floppy or large connectors, you want:

(small connector 1)---------------------(twist)---(small connector 4)

I used a regular set of scissors, not particularly sharp, over many cables, and never had any problems.

-PJ

 

[Whitedog]

LMAO! Nice illustration Joe