No Solder Nylon Wrapped Phone Cable!

Your phone is your most valuable tool whether you are in danger or need pizza ASAP at the office. However, almost all devices require you to connect to a power source, which brought me to make a nylon wrapped charging cable. What is different with my design is there is no soldering required. I have noticed all the tutorials required you to cut and re-solder the data and power connections. I personally did not want to risk my phone on some Frankenstein cable, so I thought on the matter for a while and I would like to show you what I have come up with! The nylon adds durability and aesthetic qualities, so that whoever your phone needs a charge, you know you have a dependable source.

Tools/Materials

• Diamond-Braid Poly Rope (Size depends on the cable you want to wrap)

• Heat shrink tubing (1/2 inch in diameter and 3/8 inch in diameter)

• Electrical tape

• Heat gun/lighter

• A cable to wrap

This Instructable mainly addresses how to wrap an apple lightning cable (I have found that they work the best, however, you can apply this method to many other cables (as long as their end fits in the rope).

Disclaimer: If you somehow break your phone (or anything else) in the process of recreating this Instructable, blame your friends pet goldfish, not me. Also, heat shrink is fun, but don't go overboard! While it may seem like a good idea at the time, DO NOT ATTEMPT TO HEAT SHRINK YOUR TONGUE! It will not go well... Trust me.

Step 1: The Concept

This type of rope is similar to a Chinese finger trap. When you pull the rope(with the inside removed), the overall diameter lessens. When you push the rope it slightly broadens. This means that the smaller end of any cable can pushed through, giving you a custom wrapped cable!

Step 2: Thread the Cable

Measure the rope to be roughly the same length as your cable (you will be trimming it) and cut. After that, remove the innards and (carefully) shove your cable through. You may have to shave the plastic part around the cable to get it to fit.

Step 3: Carefully Trim the Excess

Un-weave the end sections, leaving only individual strands. Then, pull the strands away from the cable so you are not endangering the cable, and trim all those strands down to size.

Step 4: Use Electrical Tape to Tie Down Lose Ends

After trimming the excess rope fibers, apply electrical tape to hold down any loose fibers so you can easily slide the heat shrink tubing through. Do this for both sides.

Step 5: Heat Shrink

Slide a 1 inch section of 3/8 inch diameter heat shrink all the way down the USB part of the charging cable (photo 2) and heat shrink it in place (Do this first!!). Once that is completed, slide over a 1 inch section of a 1/2 inch diameter piece of heat shrink over the usb side and heat shrink in place.

After that, move to the other side, applying a 1 1/2 inch section of 3/8 inch diameter heat shrink to the lightning end of the lightning cable. This will not only hold down the lose fibers, it will also provide extra support!

Step 6: Micro USB Charging Cables

In this section I would like to address some limitations of this process. First and foremost, this will not work on all phone cables (30 pin cable, Samsung cable, etc.). Second, if you would like to wrap your micro usb cable, you may have to shave down the end in order for the end of the cable to fit through (or you could get some thicker rope).

Step 7: Enjoy Your Custom Wrapped Phone Cable!

If you have completed this Instructable, I encourage you to post a picture down below.

Thanks for reading my Instructable, and see you next time!

Comments

[IanR113]

"Put the smaller end of the cable through"
So what you are saying is this wont work for making a non removable non braided usb keyboards cable look braided then? :/

[oragamiunicorn]

I'd suggest getting the 3 to 1 ratio heatshrink, it is more expensive and harder to find, but will shrink down more. I am using up a jumbo pack of 2 to1 heatshrink at the moment, it's great stuff, but I always want it to go a little tighter, also I often find I'm heating longer than is ideal, just to get every last millimetre of shrink.

[MadeByGloria]

Cool! I wonder if this would work with paracord?

[oragamiunicorn]

yeah this works well with paracord, I covered my sister's speaker wires and antenna cable with paracord so it is invisible against her walls, works amazingly well.

[oragamiunicorn]

I did this a few days ago, after finding 30 metres of rope for £2.50. it worked brilliantly for a 3.5mm to 3.5mm audio cable. But I couldn't get it to open up enough to get over either a micro or mini usb connector. I then tried to use the rope to sleeve a long (ish) mains extension cable, about 3.5 metres, but struggled to take the core out of it, by the time I'd got there, the hollow sleeve that I was left with so torn up it looked like it had been attacked by a cat. Its odd, I've made previous cables using a shoe lace using the same method and it's gone fine.

Anyway, if you want to give this technique a go (and when it works it looks great and means your cable collection isn't all black, hard to distinguish one from the other) just have good look at the rope first, the shoelace I used had a much finer finish, more threads in the weave, and it worked much better. Also I'd rub the rope about a bit, see if the threads look like the'll snag and pull, if it does, avoid.

Good luck !!

[moonreyes]

Finally got a photo! Use it in my car.

[PardoByNight]

I'm definitely gonna try this! :)

[Alaric Loftus]

Please let me know how it goes!

[moonreyes]

This was a wonderful way to make my cords last longer! Not to mention I love the addition of color :)

[dsantil71]

My only suggestion would be to use a heat gun which only heats up about 320 ℉ whereas a lighter can reach over 3,000 ℉ depending on the type of fuel it has in it.
I wouldn't want to expose my cables to that amount of extreme heat even if it's for a short time.
Heat guns are cheap, less than $20, last forever & work on a lot of materials. My husband even stole mine & uses it specifically for shrink tubes!

[graydog111]

Great idea Alaric Loftus ........ I have some antique electric fans that have braided cords that need to be replace. I will try putting the rope sheath over modern cord to make it look antique. Thanks for posting this.

[AbhiM]

would this work on mini usb cables? ( the ones you would use on a ps3 controller)

[Alaric Loftus]

You could, but I would recommend that you use the next size up (1/2in).

[JulioF3]

Yo preferí cubrirlo todo.

[Alaric Loftus]

Interesante! Qué hacer tú cubrirlo con?

[RobTurrentine]

I know is not-picky but the rope in the picture says Poly and the title says Nylon. Different stuff. Still, this a super idea. I have lots of different cables with different connectors. I tried color-coding them with tape but the tape comes off after a while. For some reason my cats like chewing on them as well. Now I have $100 ear buds that don't work. This idea will hopefully kill two birds with one stone. You may have saved a cat's life.

[MariL1]

that's what I saw, too; I was looking for someone doing something handy with all those germy old nylons my horder-mind cannot be convinced to ditch...they just look primordial enough to be ableto do tons of stuff and conversions with...but this was about rope. sigh

[Jfieldcap]

Suggested edit: On the first line, change "Whether you have " ect, " to "Whether or not you have " ect. I don't mean to be rude or snobby, but it's better grammar, since you didn't have another reason you need your phone. ;) Hope you don't mind me pointing it out. Also, this is pretty cool, I may use it sometime...

[emason]

Could I suggest you change it to 'etc'?

[Jfieldcap]

Haha, good point. I don't know if there's a way to edit comments though... I'll have to see. ;) I didn't intend to have the extra " in there. Thanks for the correction.