Power supply wire management

[Video Head]

Can anyone relate their experience/advise on shortening power supply leads to custom lengths. I have started a project to clean up the wires in two boxes. Both are Aspiire X-Qpacks (small form factor cubes) with windows (acrylic, not the software ). The space inside these boxes is tight and all the extra wire from the hard wired power supplies is taking up valuable realestate. I know about modular units but do not want to throw away two perfectly good power supplies to achieve this. I want to make the leads to the molex connectors just long enough to comfortably reach the unit they need to power.

Would removing the molex connectors, cutting the leads and reattaching the molex connectors be the best route, or should I cut the leads in the middle, cut out the length I want to get rid of and then crimp connect the leads back together with shrink protecting them. In both cases I will be placing braided wire covering over the leads to clean up the look.

I guess I am looking for the most efficient way of doing this, as it looks like the kind of project that could be very labour intensive. I do have experience in building various types of cables and connectors and have handled a soldering iron for more years than I would care to admit.

If removing the molex connectors is the suggested route, does anyone know if these are available in different colours?

[AlanHK]

Do you have an old, junk, PC power supply to play with?

Anyway, possibly it might be easier to cut the end inside the power supply -- ignoring the dire warnings of "do not open", etc. I would expect, (but have no direct knowledge) that the internal connectors would be simpler and easier to hack, and hide any joins if you do have to splice. Or could you just push the excess wire into the PSU? Or coil them and strap them up?

[trhouse]

I am not sure what type of ccnnectors are on your power supply. The ones in my computer are IDC ( insulation displacement connector). With these you can just pull the wires out with pliers, cut them to length, and reinsert them with a screwdriver to shove them down into the jaws although I have special tool that does that made by the manufacturer. If the connectors are crimp on, that means you cannot reuse the crimped on parts and will need access to replacements and a tool to attach them. In that case, I would check to see how the wires are attached inside the power supply. If they are soldered, I would unsolder, shorten, and resolder.

Be careful about using different colored connector housings. Molex has housings that are color coded to the gauge of the wire being used.

[redwudz]

The neatest way would be to get a Molex terminal removal tool and pull the pins out of the connector, put new pin ends on the shortened cable and re-insert them in the Molex connector. You realize the PS cables may not fit in another box if you decide to reuse the PS later?

Second best would be to cut the cables in the middle and remove the unneeded wire, slide a piece of shrink tube over the wire, then solder the wire ends after joining the wires with a Western Union type overlapping splice.

Last would be a mechanical splice. They usually work just fine, but I have distrust of mechanical splices. If you use a good quality splice and the correct spicing tool, probably OK, though. I wouldn't use a Radio Shack or similar cheap brand of splice and tool. Go to a electrical supply house and get some quality splices and tools. 3M, Milwaukee and others make good tools and splices. It will probably cost you about $30US, but well worth it. Adding a bit of shrink tubing would also be a good addition. Same with the shrink tubing, get a good brand and use a heat gun if possible, definitely not a match.

One company that sells Molex connectors and tools: http://www.jameco.com

[Video Head]

Thanks for all the great advise!

I looked at shortening the leads at the power supply end but the chase holding the wires where they enter the supply is pretty tough and I don't want to start messing with that.

The leads I want to shorten have the 4 pin Molex power connectors, sata power, floppy power, etc. On one, the leads are so long that it must have been designed for a full tower. Trying to coil up and hide that many miles of wire in a 3 window SFF is no easy task.

I will be going with redwudz first suggestion and remove the connectors, shorten the wires, and reinstall connectors. I'm not too concerned about being able to reuse the power supplies later. I am also going to take some of the extra wire I cut out and make some extenders and y-cables when I do this (something for idle hands to do while watching TV ) so I can add length later, if needed.

I did find some 4 pin Molex connectors in different colours and even UV reactive ones. I think I'll be creative with these and the wire sleaving.

Will shortening the wires improve the rail voltages due to less resisitance? I'm already pretty certain that airflow will improve. Can I terminate leads without a connector installed, i.e. - not necessary due to the limited number of devices that can be installed in these SFF's?

Thanks for the help!