Project:Akki's Cat5 Bracelet
From London Hackspace Wiki
| Akki's Cat5 Bracelet | |
|---|---|
| Created | 26/03/2012 |
| Members | Akki14 |
| QR code | |
Description
A pretty, slightly less geeky bracelet made out of cat5 cable.
Materials
- Cat5 cable, you'll need 5-8 inches depending on wrist size
- 8 tubular end fastener crimps (original bracelet had 5mm, new ones have 7.5mm)
- two 3-ring connectors
- 8 jumper rings (5mm-7mm depending on what sort of look you like)
- clasp (15mm on the original, 10mm on new ones)
Method
Warning: This seems really lengthy but it's not really that hard to do - it's just quite hard to explain.
- Measure your wrist and estimate how loose you want your bracelet to be. The findings (clasp + connectors + jumper rings) adds on about an inch/2.5cm. Most women's bracelets are around 6-7 inches, and men's bracelets are 8-9+ inches.
- Cut the cat5 cable to the correct length. Use pliers to grip a pair of wires and gently pull it out of the sheathing. Repeat with the other pairs.
- Place a pair of wires into the tubular end fastener crimp. Using pliers, carefully apply pressure to one side of the tube, in a horizontal direction. When it's folded underneath the other side, press downwards on the crimp. Press down all along the tube to make everything tight. Repeat with the remaining flap, first applying horizontal pressure then downwards pressure very firmly.
- Repeat crimping the tubular end fasteners to all pairs of wire and both ends of the wires. You should have 4 pairs.
- Attach the wires (one pair on each side, two pairs in the middle) with the jumper rings to the 3-ring connectors. Just twist them open with pliers and your fingers (gently) then loop on the wires and the connector. Twist the jumper ring back into place exactly. If you have trouble doing this, you can gently squeeze the jumper ring together before twisting it back into place. This gives a more snug fit.
- After attaching the wires to one of the 3-ring connectors, give them a slight twist so they all stay together. If they're connected in parallel they tend to flop around on the arm and act less like 1 bracelet. Then connect the ends of the wires to the other 3-ring connector.
- Attach a jumper ring to the connector for the clasp to attach to. Use another jumper ring to attach the clasp to the other connector.
- Attach bracelet to wrist of your choosing - You're done!
Resources
Cat5 cable I had lying about at home (Doesn't everyone?). I bought my jewellery findings from JillyBeads. There's probably a gazillion other places to go to but I've never had a problem with them. Please add here if you know of other places that you prefer to use for jewellery findings Akki14 20:00, 31 March 2012 (UTC)
