Internal USB + Fan Sleeving Guide

[eventidephoenix]

Internal USB Sleeving Guide

I’ve been doing some sleeving lately, and realised I couldn’t find a guide on sleeving those internal USBs online. Nevertheless, after some tweaking I managed to get it done. Since I was doing it might as well create a guide (since the one most unsleeved thing are your internal USBs). I will also put down a small guide for fan sleeving (since it’s so easy). The Case Modding competition (VRZ) is around the corner, so I thought it’d be good to share.

Before beginning:
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Tip: Read up Enegizer’s guide. It’s a very good starting point.
Tip: Getting sleeving done takes time and practice like everything else, so don’t expect a smooth sleeving session. If you follow Enegizer’s tips and some of mine, the chances of you screwing up will be a little lesser
~~~~~

Materials needed:
1) Sleeving and Heatshrink

Personally, I use ᶲ4mm for 3wires and ᶲ3mm for 2wires. Obviously you need more sleeving than heatshrink. Both of these are easily obtainable from either Uvnium or SLT, wherever you can find the colours of your choice.

~~~~~
Tip: For heatshrink, get 1mm larger. It pays off later, much easier to sleeve.
Tip: These braided sleeves stretch. So if you get one size too small, you will still be able to see your wires. It’s a compromise: Nice and tight cabling with visible wires, or loose fat cabling.
~~~~~

2) Pyrotechnics (Just kiddin, any form of heat source would suffice)

Using a lighter got my thumb hurting after a while, so I stuck to the good o’ candle. It’s really up to you.

3) Miscellenous

These include scotch tape, scissors (a sharp one would be great), pen knifes, and tiny flathead screwdrivers like this one:

 

[eventidephoenix]

Step 1: Removing the pins.

How do you remove the Pins? This applies for most motherboard connectors with similar heads – your power, your Audio, your Firewire etc. First up, select the header you want to sleeve. I’m going to start with the USB.

Note that the USB has two wires coming out of it. Their arrangement is basically the same top-bottom.
Meaning:

| Red | White | Green| Black | Empty |
| Red | White | Green| Black | Empty |

~~~
Tip: Write it down somewhere.

~~~

Next, cut out the original heatshrink. You need to do this or run into trouble if you use thinner sleeving. If you’re using thicker sleeving it doesn’t really matter.

In the picture below, notice some pins are next to the flap, and some pins are away from the flap.. The trick is to push the wires forward, and you can get the pin away from the flap, giving you a small hole just beside the flap so you can shove your small screwdriver in and lift it. The flap is what’s holding the pin there.

 

[eventidephoenix]

Now insert your screwdriver while holding on to the particular cable you intend to remove first (ONLY that cable, it’ll be easier this way). Lift the flap up gently, and with a slight pull grab the cable out.

~~~~~
Tip: Do not yank the cable out. You may end up leaving the crimp pin behind, and pulling out only the wire.
~~~~~

You should get it out like that:

Repeat and you’re done!

Step 2: Sleeving

First, measure the correct length of sleeving according to the cable length, and make a clean fast cut. No matter how you cut it, as long as you try to fit the larger heads in, your cable will run into trouble (Fraying). Take Enegiser’s tip: Burn the sleeving everytime it’s cut. If you do, you should get this:

Although mine’s very badly done, notice the ends curl up in a hardened ball. If you failed and started sleeving, you’ll get this:

Imaging how you’re going to put the heatshrink through all that.

~~~~~
Tip: Do not burn it for too long. Brush it across a naked flame several times, that should suffice.
~~~~~

 

[eventidephoenix]

Now before pulling your sleeving, I highly recommend wrapping up your pins with a bit of scotch tape like that

This is because as you move along the sleeve, the pins are sharp enough to get caught in between. If that happens, you have to cut your sleeve to free it and restart the process. Tough luck =\

Now after you’ve pulled the sleeving in, cut two pieces of heatshrink to your desired length. One’s for the back and one’s for the front.

~~~~~
Tip: If you’ve frayed your sleeve anyway, here’s a quick fix. What I did was, I rolled all the cables to one side and cut it off like that. This way, the frayed sleeving will be of unequal height, making it easy for you to put them in.
~~~~~

Provide heat to your heatshrink and it will start to shrink (duh!). Do this by holding a heat source close to your sleeve. If you’re using a naked flame, I suggest putting it close without contact. Don’t do it continuously if you’re using a naked flame (they’re really hot!). Put it close for two seconds and take it away.

The end result:

(And yes, you may do this for the rest of your cables)

It may be a bit tedious, but the final result is something to be proud of =)

 

[eventidephoenix]

Fan Sleeving Guide

Now that you’ve mastered the basics of sleeving, fan sleeving is even easier. I’m only going to include the guide on pin removal, the rest is pretty much the same.

Pin removal for fans are even easier than internal USBs. All you need to do is to take a paper clip and press the pin down. Gently push the pin and nudge it around, while you use your other hand to hold the specific wire you’re trying to remove and tug it gently.

If all goes well, your pins are out!

~~~~~
Tip: Notice I repeated the word gently many times. You should not need to use a lot of force. If you do, you will pull the wire out with the crimp pin still in its housing -.-“
~~~~~

Sleeve it as usual and add your heatshrink.

And you have a nicely sleeved fan!

Fans are very easy to sleeve, even more so than internal USB housings. So as long as you have a 3pin fan, you have no excuse not to sleeve them =p

For Molex fan sleeving, refer to Enegiser’s guide.

Hope to share this with more people, especially with the upcoming case mod contest (which sadly, my case won’t be done on time).

 

[Mythmaker]

I would recommend getting the 4mm sleeves from Edwin @ sgmodder.com. His sleeves are better than SLT or SLS and it comes with HS too... although the HS is pretty small lol (4mm too). Currently on promotion, $8 for 5m sleeve + 1m of HS.

For sleeving onto bare wires, it is a common practice to shrink a layer of HS in first before putting the main HS over it. This way, the sleeves wont run... especially after some time.

And if one is planning to do an amount of sleeving (i.e 24p unisleeve), please get a heat gun lol. It helps alot, MUCH faster and tighter than the lighter or hair dryer.

P.S
Would like to add that if you are doing unisleeve, personally I would recommend a 4mm HS over a 4mm sleeve. Although you will have finger cramps afterwards (especially if you are doing 24p), the sleeves won't shift around (cos it would be dam tight) thus easier to make the entire sleeving looking more uniform.

And if you are doing unisleeve, please measure your sleeve length to precision before cutting it lol. Do not overcut or undercut. There cannot be any compromise at all.

 

[hg_wng]

I would recommend getting the 4mm sleeves from Edwin @ sgmodder.com. His sleeves are better than SLT or SLS and it comes with HS too... although the HS is pretty small lol (4mm too). Currently on promotion, $8 for 5m sleeve + 1m of HS.

For sleeving onto bare wires, it is a common practice to shrink a layer of HS in first before putting the main HS over it. This way, the sleeves wont run... especially after some time.

hmm, does he do delivery?

and do u mean wire<HS<sleeve<HS?

 

[Mythmaker]

He does mailing primary, or you can self collect at his hang outs also. Check his website for more details.

It's hard to explain what I mean without pictures... basically you just cut and put on the sleeve. Then cut a small piece of HS and place it directly in front of the end of the sleeve. Shrink it, then put the main sleeve over both the sleeve and the shrinked-hs.

You can youtube it (sleeving fan, or something). Almost everyone does it so it's quite easy to find... if you dont do it, the sleeves will run unless you shrink it onto something jagged, let's say the metal tip...

 

[hg_wng]

He does mailing primary, or you can self collect at his hang outs also. Check his website for more details.

It's hard to explain what I mean without pictures... basically you just cut and put on the sleeve. Then cut a small piece of HS and place it directly in front of the end of the sleeve. Shrink it, then put the main sleeve over both the sleeve and the shrinked-hs.

You can youtube it (sleeving fan, or something). Almost everyone does it so it's quite easy to find... if you dont do it, the sleeves will run unless you shrink it onto something jagged, let's say the metal tip...

really?
every guide that i have seen so far does wat TS did
have any tutorials to share? i've seen gary/energizer's one and http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?t=202639
all do the same way

 

[Mythmaker]

and http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?t=202639
all do the same way

I'm not sure if I'll take that guy's words lol. His sleeving is horrible... even my 6 hours chiong-and-done 24pin looks much better >.>

http://sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos...7_449024625760_530290760_5986616_724910_n.jpg

I made a mistake with the sleeve length though, but that's not the topic lol. Back to topic, this is what Nils, creator of MDPC.com wrote in the email when a good bro ordered stuff for me:

"> 4. HOLDING THE STRETCHED STATE OF THE SLEEVE: To hold the maximum stretch of the sleeve, the heatshink needs to be attached that it can't slide on the cable. MDPC does not use glue-lined heatshrink, because it would be too ugly when the glue comes out of the end. Usability if you want to re-shrink would be unacceptable too. With the MDPC tricks, it's easy to get a perfect hold: You can shrink OVER the pin (exactly as far as shown here http://img1.abload.de/img/netzteilsleeven08n5gr.jpg ). This is possible because MDPC heatshrink as the thinnest possible wall thickness ever! It goes deep and seamless into the connector and nothing can make the shrink slide anymore, if you work exactly as shown. The part that goes over the Sleeve doesn't need to be longer than 4-5mm if the ends of the sleeve were melted. Once you found your sleeve and heatshrink length that works best for you, cut all shrink lengths exactly the same to get an identical end result on every cable. If you don't have a pin where you can "shrink onto", then there is the second trick against sliding: Take a 4-5mm wide piece of SMALL heatshrink. This you put onto the transition of sleeve and blank cable (50-50). Shrink it. Then you take another SMALL heatshrink of 14mm length and position it over the previously attached heatshrink ... and shrink it. This double pressure prevents any sliding when the sleeve is stretched! "

So it's actually a widely recognized tactic. I'll try to find a video where it's shown (hmm i remember i saw alot of videos on this)...

EDIT:
lol found it on the first video I youtubed:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FeCs98TSsYQ&feature=related

Around the 5+mins ba. However I don't cut that long though... I cut to the point where the sleeve ends so the sleeve won't go above the shrinks. But if you are going to unisleeve, please dont follow this guy's tutorial lol... you will never achieve uniformity at this rate. There's an excellent 20 minutes video around that tells you properly how to do a decent unisleeve. Lemme try to find it...

EDIT2:
Found it.

Part1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x6Fg4SoiHks
Part2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ggOtcxb49Ik

 

[hg_wng]

I'm not sure if I'll take that guy's words lol. His sleeving is horrible... even my 6 hours chiong-and-done 24pin looks much better >.>

http://sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos...7_449024625760_530290760_5986616_724910_n.jpg

I made a mistake with the sleeve length though, but that's not the topic lol. Back to topic, this is what Nils, creator of MDPC.com wrote in the email when a good bro ordered stuff for me:

"> 4. HOLDING THE STRETCHED STATE OF THE SLEEVE: To hold the maximum stretch of the sleeve, the heatshink needs to be attached that it can't slide on the cable. MDPC does not use glue-lined heatshrink, because it would be too ugly when the glue comes out of the end. Usability if you want to re-shrink would be unacceptable too. With the MDPC tricks, it's easy to get a perfect hold: You can shrink OVER the pin (exactly as far as shown here http://img1.abload.de/img/netzteilsleeven08n5gr.jpg ). This is possible because MDPC heatshrink as the thinnest possible wall thickness ever! It goes deep and seamless into the connector and nothing can make the shrink slide anymore, if you work exactly as shown. The part that goes over the Sleeve doesn't need to be longer than 4-5mm if the ends of the sleeve were melted. Once you found your sleeve and heatshrink length that works best for you, cut all shrink lengths exactly the same to get an identical end result on every cable. If you don't have a pin where you can "shrink onto", then there is the second trick against sliding: Take a 4-5mm wide piece of SMALL heatshrink. This you put onto the transition of sleeve and blank cable (50-50). Shrink it. Then you take another SMALL heatshrink of 14mm length and position it over the previously attached heatshrink ... and shrink it. This double pressure prevents any sliding when the sleeve is stretched! "

So it's actually a widely recognized tactic. I'll try to find a video where it's shown (hmm i remember i saw alot of videos on this)...

EDIT:
lol found it on the first video I youtubed:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FeCs98TSsYQ&feature=related

Around the 5+mins ba. However I don't cut that long though... I cut to the point where the sleeve ends so the sleeve won't go above the shrinks. But if you are going to unisleeve, please dont follow this guy's tutorial lol... you will never achieve uniformity at this rate. There's an excellent 20 minutes video around that tells you properly how to do a decent unisleeve. Lemme try to find it...

EDIT2:
Found it.

Part1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x6Fg4SoiHks
Part2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ggOtcxb49Ik

lol, that's wat i meant
but the vid is very helpful. thx a lot

 

[Mythmaker]

Yep. But that not what I meant initially lol.

HS under sleeve is okay... but will face problem with unisleeve. Cos it will make that part of the sleeve fatter. In unisleeving, everything is cramped together and there's actually little room to wriggle around. If every sleeving is fatter at the head, you might not be able to push all the pins back at the connector... cos the left and right cables will be occupying the space.

 

[hg_wng]

Yep. But that not what I meant initially lol.

HS under sleeve is okay... but will face problem with unisleeve. Cos it will make that part of the sleeve fatter. In unisleeving, everything is cramped together and there's actually little room to wriggle around. If every sleeving is fatter at the head, you might not be able to push all the pins back at the connector... cos the left and right cables will be occupying the space.

oic. thx for explaining
btw nice new avatar lol

 

[Mythmaker]

oic. thx for explaining
btw nice new avatar lol

Thanks lol.

I would also like to add that while burning the ends will produce a very nice effect, please do not overburn.

http://sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos..._439399135760_530290760_5778261_4397223_n.jpg

As you can see my 8pin cables, individually, are occupying so much space horizontally that I'm unable to close the 2 4pin together. This is also what I meant in my previous post about cables getting "fat".

Lesson learnt lol.

It takes alot of effort in getting the effects that you want and there cannot be any compromise. Makes one appreciate what those pros had done, like shard's 24 pin =)

P.S
Another thing, please do not use a scissors to cut the heatshrink. Use a penknife. The margin of error is much smaller.