[IC] Chainmaille cable armor - Updated 12/31/2013

[WhiteFireDragon]

I personally think you shouldn't offer a DIY kit or a tutorial. You are providing a service here. Why would you offer all the help people need to take that service away from you?

This statement is a bit ridiculous. That's like saying no one is allowed to buy a phantom, GH60, or ergodox unless it's preassembled by a selected few. So get rid of all your soldering irons .

Also for me personally, anything I can build or do myself, I'd prefer that over paying someone to do it. Self satisfaction can't be bought.

[Larken]

I totally understand where the asking price is coming from, and its definitely reasonable, given how labor and skill intensive this is.

150usd for over 20 hours of work? Minus the cost of the materials, we're looking at maybe five bucks an hour? The end product may be expensive, but labor ain't cheap, and 5/hr is pretty cheap/reasonable, depending on our perspective.

Personally I'll never spend that much on a usb cable. Then again, I sleeve my own cables over buying from the pro-makers on GH. Very cool idea, OP.

[MOZ]

You the pro, so you can decide what is good for us noobs, I personally prefer to do things by my own, it is more of a the learning which intrigues me, and if anything, I have been here a short while and I think atleast some members would have guessed I am a DIY person.

[jonathanyu]

jewelry for their desk!  I like this word!
I think I am in for this!

[YoungMichael88]

Like I've said in a previous post, I have dabbled in this stuff, tried out a few weaves and crafted a few items for myself. Yes it's time consuming but I can't see this taking 20 hours to finish. I could be wrong since I haven't done a cable yet. I'll see soon enough tho. As far as a DIY kit, I think that's the right direction to go if the savings are significant enough with you buying rings in bulk. Otherwise the Internet is a DIY kit. You can find all the weave instructions and supplies you need with little effort.
http://cgmaille.com/
http://theringlord.com/cart/default.asp
http://bit.ly/19MR0ox

[Elrick]

Honestly, moose. I think you'll be surprised how quickly people realize chainmailling is not for them. I'm not saying it's the most difficult thing in the world, but it takes a special breed of person to be able to make it through 20 hours of chainmaille. If people want the option, I'll give it to them, but they're going to have so many warped rings, and misaligned rings, that people might start to reconsider my offer.

If you are willing to torture yourself to produce a hand full of cables for us here then I'll buy at least 3 of them from you right now.

You guys get even more intense with what you want to cover your plain usb cables with.  Just make up an order form with colour selections and I'm there, also please state the length of the cables, be they 1.6 or 1.8 meters?

[CalmB4tehPwn]

Honestly, moose. I think you'll be surprised how quickly people realize chainmailling is not for them. I'm not saying it's the most difficult thing in the world, but it takes a special breed of person to be able to make it through 20 hours of chainmaille. If people want the option, I'll give it to them, but they're going to have so many warped rings, and misaligned rings, that people might start to reconsider my offer.

If you are willing to torture yourself to produce a hand full of cables for us here then I'll buy at least 3 of them from you right now.

You guys get even more intense with what you want to cover your plain usb cables with.  Just make up an order form with colour selections and I'm there, also please state the length of the cables, be they 1.6 or 1.8 meters?

I'd never call chainmaille torture. At least, not for me. But it seems every week I've got a new fried or coworker that wants to give it a try, and I loan them a pair of pliers and a fist full of steel rings, and sit down with them and teach them a basic weave or two, and they seem all interested, and then it's time for them to go home and finish their bracelet, and weeks goes by and I have to ask for my pliers back, because they haven't done anything to finish the bracelet.

My favorite thing in the world is teaching. Sharing my hobbies, but I'm sorry if I've gotten a little jaded about sharing chainmaille. If I can't motivate my friends to complete a 3-4 hour bracelet, in person, then I'm not confident many of you will finish a 20 hour + cable sleeve. Who knows, maybe everyone on GH cares enough about, and will step up and surprise the hell out of me. I've been doing this for twelve years, and I find it relaxing, but everyone else seems to find it stressful.

But if everyone wants to give it a shot, I'm more than happy to facilitate it. I just ask that you be honest with yourself. Is this a project you truly, actually, want to dedicate 2 hours a day to for ten days? Four hours a day for five days? In my case, that's literally doing nothing in my free time, after work, beside this project for an entire week. If you can't see yourself actually doing this, then don't get the kit. As I said, I wont be taking more than a few dollars from putting the kit and tutorial together (because as it's said, tutorials are plastered all over the internet, and building your own kit is a snap, once you know ring sizes and amounts which I'll be providing info on) so I'm not in the kit business for money, I honestly want people to find an interest in this, but be warned, it took me 6 months of wrapping my own wire by hand, and piecing together bracelets before I made something I'd be willing to wear. Warped rings and misalignments will be frustrating to a lot of you. Go into it knowing your work wont look like my work, because chainmaille isn't a science, it's an art.

And unfortunately, being at an APO I have to wait like 8 days for my practice cable to get here, and then test out a few ring sizes I have on hand before I can order enough to actually make an entire thing, wait 2 weeks for that to come in the mail (ordering from Canada, to send to a US APO, then to be shipped to Korea. It's gotta make two country changes) so it'll probably be a month before I have specifics for you, and example shots. Unless we're super lucky and I have the perfect ring size on hand in stainless steel, then I can give you accurate ring sizes out of the hatch and get going on getting the kit GB going.

[CalmB4tehPwn]

Honestly, moose. I think you'll be surprised how quickly people realize chainmailling is not for them. I'm not saying it's the most difficult thing in the world, but it takes a special breed of person to be able to make it through 20 hours of chainmaille. If people want the option, I'll give it to them, but they're going to have so many warped rings, and misaligned rings, that people might start to reconsider my offer.

If you are willing to torture yourself to produce a hand full of cables for us here then I'll buy at least 3 of them from you right now.

You guys get even more intense with what you want to cover your plain usb cables with.  Just make up an order form with colour selections and I'm there, also please state the length of the cables, be they 1.6 or 1.8 meters?

Oh, and the standard length will be 4 feet, but since I'll have it worked out to how many hours it takes per foot for me to make these, I'll have figures written up for anything between 2 feet and 6 feet, depending on how much you want me to make. Keep in mind I could just make armor for the first two feet, the part that will show, from the keyboard. Then you drop the cable off the back of the desk and connect it to your computer.

Just a thought.

[MOZ]

Honestly, moose. I think you'll be surprised how quickly people realize chainmailling is not for them. I'm not saying it's the most difficult thing in the world, but it takes a special breed of person to be able to make it through 20 hours of chainmaille. If people want the option, I'll give it to them, but they're going to have so many warped rings, and misaligned rings, that people might start to reconsider my offer.

If you are willing to torture yourself to produce a hand full of cables for us here then I'll buy at least 3 of them from you right now.

You guys get even more intense with what you want to cover your plain usb cables with.  Just make up an order form with colour selections and I'm there, also please state the length of the cables, be they 1.6 or 1.8 meters?

Oh, and the standard length will be 4 feet, but since I'll have it worked out to how many hours it takes per foot for me to make these, I'll have figures written up for anything between 2 feet and 6 feet, depending on how much you want me to make. Keep in mind I could just make armor for the first two feet, the part that will show, from the keyboard. Then you drop the cable off the back of the desk and connect it to your computer.

Just a thought.

I like the sound of that.

[CalmB4tehPwn]

Yeah, seems like a pretty reasonable compromise. I'd be investing roughly half the time, so half of the $125 and we'd be looking at closer to $60 or $70. Plus $25 to have a completed cable, of course. but still a better number than $150.

[Photoelectric]

What if you do a loose weave over a sleeved cable.  Like say a silver sleeve, or sky blue, or whatever matches the theme.  I guess that would make the overall cable too thick in the end =/  But some USB cables come in sparkly / transparent colors to start with already--other than the standard white or black.  Wouldn't look as nice as thin fabric under the rings though.

[CalmB4tehPwn]

The USBs will be provided by Nubbinator, and will come in a variety of colors. Both as part of the USB Kits included with the chainmaille kits, or as completed pieces.

Or, if you want to provide your own USB cable, then just leave that out of the order.

UPDATE

Well, I decided to take what I have and see what we've got. I hacked the cable off of my old busted BW (which should be a little thicker than Nubbinator's USB cables) and the rings I have on hand.

Firstly, I was able to do a foot in an hour
Now, the rings were slightly too big for this cable, which means it'll take a little longer to get the same distance, on the real thing, but we're probably looking at 1 1/2 hour, to 2 hours per foot. So PROBABLY less than 8 hours for a 4 foot cable. Again, this is all estimation, and will be determined by the final ring size used.

What else this means: Stainless still will be available in the kits. Keep this in mind, again, it's harder to work and will take you longer, but the option will be there for you.

Here's a couple crappy pictures of the foot that I did, in stainless steel, on BW black sleeved cable.

As you can see, the armor is big. We're probably looking at 75% of that total size for the finished product. These will not be small cables when they're done.
Let me know what you think, and if you have any questions at this point.

 




Tentative price for completed cable: $110

Also, of note, I've decided I'll be doing a tutorial video as well as instructions, and offering "Starter pieces" of 6 inches of the weave for 8 dollars, done in your colors and shipped with your DIY kit.

The hardest part of any chainmaille piece is starting it. So, for 8 bucks, I'll start it for you, with rings from your kit, so when you get it you don't have to fight it. Then when you complete the first project, if you're interested still in chainmaille, you can start the next project on your own. Should be an easier learning curve that way.

[SpAmRaY]

I think if someone pisses you off you can just take your armored usb cable and beat them with it.

[MOZ]

Definitely in for the kit. I'll do a complete length for the trrs cable and about two feet for the USB cable.

Since I am using metal connectors for the trrs cable,  this would go great with it.

[esoomenona]

I personally think you shouldn't offer a DIY kit or a tutorial. You are providing a service here. Why would you offer all the help people need to take that service away from you?

This statement is a bit ridiculous. That's like saying no one is allowed to buy a phantom, GH60, or ergodox unless it's preassembled by a selected few. So get rid of all your soldering irons .

Also for me personally, anything I can build or do myself, I'd prefer that over paying someone to do it. Self satisfaction can't be bought.

I wasn't going to argue my point, because it's essentially irrelevant at this point, but your scenario is completely different.

If a person was the sole provider of soldering services here, and people wanted to solder on their own, should that primary soldering agent provide the means to eliminate his service by providing equipment and knowledge to any other person? I'm not saying that people shouldn't do this if they don't want to; au contraire, the internet IS DIY, and information on things such as this are so readily available. What I'm saying is why should this man provide everyone else the means to limit the service he wants to provide?

Of course, my point is moot as he has chosen to do just that. So more power to him and everyone else.

[YoungMichael88]

Found my old stash!! But I can't find my jewelers pliers....

[CalmB4tehPwn]

That top bag looks like it might be pretty close to the correct size, actually.
Is that stainless steel, or galvanized? And let me know if you start trying your hand at inverted round. Give some of the other potential chainmaillers some motivation!

[YoungMichael88]

That top bag looks like it might be pretty close to the correct size, actually.
Is that stainless steel, or galvanized? And let me know if you start trying your hand at inverted round. Give some of the other potential chainmaillers some motivation!

Actually I bought these rings years ago and I can't remember the alloy haha. But as soon as I find my tools (or buy new ones) I'm going to start trying inverted round although I just want to see how everything fits before I get some colored rings. Thinking of using the bottom bag to taper the ends. I might need even smaller rings yet for that but then maybe the cable won't fit. I really don't know at this point.

[Elrick]

Oh, and the standard length will be 4 feet, but since I'll have it worked out to how many hours it takes per foot for me to make these, I'll have figures written up for anything between 2 feet and 6 feet, depending on how much you want me to make. Keep in mind I could just make armor for the first two feet, the part that will show, from the keyboard. Then you drop the cable off the back of the desk and connect it to your computer.

Just a thought.

Mmmm, that could work.  But need to see some samples first before committing.

I still want a usb cable made for my keyboard at a 6-foot length minimum, completely done in stainless-steel rings.  That would be worth the money.  I don't mind coloured rings in aluminum but the stainless ones should last forever and I've always loved that material.

Just need to see how you attach the stainless rings to the usb endbits (sorry, don't know what else to call them).

[nubbinator]

Just need to see how you attach the stainless rings to the usb endbits (sorry, don't know what else to call them).

Since he dropped my name already, which I was a little surprised to see, that's the hard part and one that I have major reservations about and have been offering suggestions and ideas on.  Hopefully I'll get a small length that I can experiment with to try and figure out a proper way to end it without resorting to heatshrink that may or may not look good.

[CalmB4tehPwn]

I've been thinking about how to terminate the armor, and integrate it into the cable.
I want to taper down at the ends, either way, which requires changing the as the rings get smaller, or it just wont fit on the USB cable any longer. Which is fine, but will take some tinkering on my part, and most likely inventing a new weave to accomplish it.

Once tapered, what do we do? It's a three sided weave, so we'll end with three rings that need to be anchored. We could run three of the four cables from the USB cable, through a ring each, then heatshrink it. I think that has a potential to look good, but really cuts down on survivability, because any strain put on the armor, is put on the weakest part of the USB cable, the individual wires. So that's out.

We can run two of the four cables through one ring, and connect the other two directly to that ring, but the end would look good on one side, and most likely look like a hot mess on the other.

We can try and find a way to run 3 braided wires through the back of the USB plug, maybe solder them to a safe place on the frame of the USB plug? Then run the cable through the three termination rings, at the end of the weave, and crimp it in place, and use heat shielding over the three braided wires, ending at the edge of the first three rings? Would that work?

Or failing all else, it's not exactly pretty but it should work. Get some metal hose clamps, run the 3 termination rings through slots in the hose clamp and then tighten it down.

Or something like one of these metal ties:


I don't much like that idea, but we can keep it as an -all else fails- option.

[YoungMichael88]

Well maybe we can go to smaller diameter rings and as small a gauge as we can find to accommodate the cable. Might have to get a little custom on this one.

[CalmB4tehPwn]

The size of the ring will be dictated by the size of the cable.
If we use rings that are too small, the weave will be too tight, and the cable will not fit through the weave. That's why I'll have to change the weave as it tapers down.

[YoungMichael88]

Maybe we can taper down one size to a thin enough gauge that we can then connect short pieces of European 4-1 weave using very small rings to each of the three rings from the inverted round? Should be easy enough to go to that weave I think. They don't need to connect to each other they just need to fit into a heat shrink.

[TheSoulhunter]

How about connecting (loop bend) a piece of wire (similar gauge) to each ring at the end and twist it (spiraling) around the cable?
Should look nice and reduce the diameter enough to fit into heat-shrink or even directly into a USB connector...

[CalmB4tehPwn]

but the worry is that the heat shrink wont hold 2 pounds of rings pulling against it, let along if it gets caught on something and gets a tug. I'd rather not put out a product that'll pull out of the heatshrink after a month. We need a way to anchor it, beside heatshrinks and hot glue.

[TheSoulhunter]

but the worry is that the heat shrink wont hold 2 pounds of rings pulling against it, let along if it gets caught on something and gets a tug. I'd rather not put out a product that'll pull out of the heatshrink after a month. We need a way to anchor it, beside heatshrinks and hot glue.

My solution would anchor it, you just have to make the twisting/spiral tight enough...

[CalmB4tehPwn]

How about connecting (loop bend) a piece of wire (similar gauge) to each ring at the end and twist it (spiraling) around the cable?
Should look nice and reduce the diameter enough to fit into heat-shrink or even directly into a USB connector...

Hmm. This might work a little better. Gives more area for the heatshrink to actually hold onto, and you're right, it would look nice.

Couldn't use Stainless Steel as it has too much resiliency, tendency to spring, but aluminum should work, and would be strong enough to hold.

I like it.

[CalmB4tehPwn]

We're playing post tag. We're on the same page, SH. I think we'll try a few ideas, and this will probably be among the test subjects.  Thank you

[TheSoulhunter]

How about connecting (loop bend) a piece of wire (similar gauge) to each ring at the end and twist it (spiraling) around the cable?
Should look nice and reduce the diameter enough to fit into heat-shrink or even directly into a USB connector...

Hmm. This might work a little better. Gives more area for the heatshrink to actually hold onto, and you're right, it would look nice.

Couldn't use Stainless Steel as it has too much resiliency, tendency to spring, but aluminum should work, and would be strong enough to hold.

I like it.

Perhaps, for flexibility and tight twisting, plated copper wire is a good option?

[YoungMichael88]

Yea that spiral wire idea is probably perfect! You could really tighten that up nice and snug. Great idea!

[Leslieann]

That red, black and silver is gorgeous!
Sure the price is high, but so is the amount of labor involved. It's not over-priced, it's hand made, labor intensive jewelry, how much is your time worth?  If you don't like it, don't buy it.

[YoungMichael88]

Or.....

[MOZ]

I would highly recommend you do not use heatshrink., it will take away the whole feakin' awesome look.

[YoungMichael88]

I would highly recommend you do not use heatshrink., it will take away the whole feakin' awesome look.

What would you use? It may be the only option.

[MOZ]

I would highly recommend you do not use heatshrink., it will take away the whole feakin' awesome look.

What would you use? It may be the only option.

I really like the spring that is there on some  TRSS connectors, if somehow we could weld the jumper rings to similar springs, to complete the chain and then have these connected to the USB, it would look great. One question I have, how is the compression the final chain, as in, if we don't join the cahinmaille to the USB connector at the ends, and pull on the chainmaille, would it pull the USB out of the socket?

http://www.showmecables.com/images/catalog/product/3-5mm-Stereo-Plug-Connector-Metal-1.jpg

[YoungMichael88]

That's a good question. If the chainmaille runs the entire length on the cable and has no room to "compress" any further, would anchoring the chain to the USB end even be necessary?

[CalmB4tehPwn]

A chainmaille weave always has room to compress, unless you install the weave longer than the cable, to it comes compressed, but then there will be absolutely no flexibility in the cable as a whole. Compressing a weave like that locks it in place. Because to bend the cable one way or the other, is compressing that side of the weave, and extending the other, so the weave as to be installed neither at it's maximum or minimum level of compressions, and you will be able to pull the armor one way or the other, on the cable, about an inch, and therefore be able to pull it off of the USB end.

It needs to be anchored.

I don't know how easy it'll be to source metal tip USB ends, with the coils like that. I've never seen them for USB, and they aren't overly popular for audio equipment either because of their tendency to come apart. They're generally used by homebrewers since they're easy to install and gave a professional look without any need for additional tools.

[CalmB4tehPwn]

Updated the OP and reserved post. Made the colors a little easier to see and added colors TRL just started offering in Aluminum.
HELL OF A TIME TO BE ALIVE.

I really love that seafoam greem, and think it would pair beautifully with black. Champagne looks nice too. Lavender. All the new colors are amazing.

[MOZ]

Great.

[TheSoulhunter]

Made two mockups from the original image to see how other colors might look...

[jonathanyu]

that's look awesome

[YoungMichael88]

Yay!! I found my tools!! Gonna be chainmailling tonight!!!

[CalmB4tehPwn]

So I ordered the rings needed to test, and I have some potentially bad news. Annodized aluminum doesn't come in all of the sizes that could potentially be out perfect size for this project. So there's a chance we may need to custom order colors from TRL. I'll wait to find out if that's the case, but I know they do custom mandrelling, but there's a charge that goes with it, so we might need to come to a consensus on a couple colors.

Or it might not be an issue at all, and one of the sizes AA comes in is perfect for our project.

We're looking at like a 35-40% chance that we'll need to put in a custom AA order.
I'm thinking if we need to go that route, black will definitely be one of the colors, and my vote is for seafoam.

[YoungMichael88]

This weave is maddening!!! Getting started is sooo frustrating. If you have a short temper, don't even bother haha.

[YoungMichael88]

I think my rings are no good for this. I can only get one captive round in and it then becomes rigid. Bummer.

[CalmB4tehPwn]

Aspect ratio is too small. That's too bad. Still should be good for doing standard inverted round, which will give you practice even if it's too small for a cable.

[YoungMichael88]

Aspect ratio is too small. That's too bad. Still should be good for doing standard inverted round, which will give you practice even if it's too small for a cable.

Yea even tho the weave is correct and the rings aren't warped or misaligned, the standard inverted round still looks shoddy. The cages aren't staying nice and triangular due to the thickness of the rings I guess. I'm not too upset since I already had these rings laying around for years. I just wish I knew what size and gauge these are so I know what not to buy next.

[CalmB4tehPwn]

It might look shoddy and... well, floppy, now. But stick a cable in there and it'll form up nicely. There's nothing in it keeping it straight (like the captive rings, for example) but a cable would do it well.

[CalmB4tehPwn]

Quick update, I got my test cable, and all the rings I have on hand are either too big or too small, as I had assumed (though the small ones are closer to fitting than I had dreamed)

That being said, all of the various colors should be in play, we just have to wait on my Canada based supplier, to ship it to my US address, so the army can ship it to Korea.

It'll be a minute. Luckily I put the order in last week.

Updates as they come!