How To Crimp Your Own Ethernet Cable Of Any Length

Crimp Your Own Ethernet Cable

We might require a short Ethernet cable but you have a long one. You may either cut that cable up to the length you need or just wrap up the excess cable. To cut the cable or to make a custom ethernet cable, the right materials are needed. You can make your own custom ethernet cables by crimping them to the length you want. Also, you can use a cable longer than the required length as the premade ethernet cable are available in long lengths. But all that lengthy cable may be just wasted if it is used more than what actually is its need.

The cost of the Ethernet cable depends on the quality and the length (measured in feet) of the cable. Buying a premade ethernet cable will be in a particularly fixed length. We can cut the required length of the cable and keep aside the remaining. Do you know how the ethernet cable can be cut?

What are the tools and materials required to cut an ethernet cable? Let’s see.

• Copper ethernet cable
• RJ-45 connectors
• Relief Boots
• RJ-45 crimping tool
• Wire cutters/strippers or even a pair of scissors will do

Now we shall see a step-wise procedure to cut the cable to a required length with the help of these tools and materials

Step 1: Measure the required length of the cable:

Suppose that you need a 50 feet cable. Measure that required length and a little excess than the required length. This excess may be useful in case of any discrepancies. You can cut out the excess and make use of the remaining cable for the next time.  Cut the Ethernet cable with the wire cutter or a pair of scissors. After cutting the ends, slide on a relief boot before starting to mess with the wires and install the connector. Sliding on the relief boot becomes difficult after installing the connectors.

Step 2: Strip the outer jacket off:

Carefully strip off 2 – 3 inches of the outer jacket at both the ends of the ethernet cable using the crimping tool. The crimping tool has a section with a razor blade and enough clearance which will cut only the outer layer and not the wires of the cable. Place the wire in that section and rotate the wire so that it cuts around equally. Then pull out the Ethernet cable from the crimping tool. Now you will get the outer jacket off the wire and you can see some small wires inside the jacket. Along with the smaller wires, you will notice a set of very thin hair-like strands.

These strands give some additional strength to the wires. These strands will help you cut more of the outer jacket when you pull them down. You can take the strands out of the wire as a precaution if needed. Otherwise, you can let it be in that among the wires.

Step 3: Untwist and Separate:

After pulling out the outer jacket off the wire, you will find all the wires inside are twisted in pairs. There will be 3 or 4 pairs of wires twisted with each other. All these pairs are different in colors. One of the each pair has a white color and the other being a solid color in each pair. Untwist all the pairs and you will have eight separate wires if there are 4 pairs inside it. You may also flatten them if they are wavy in any case.

Step 4: Place the wires in correct order to crimp them:

Arrange all the eight wires in a specific order. All the wires can be placed in any order but the only thing is that both the ends should be in the same order. But ethernet cable has some particular sequence to place the wires in an order. They are T-568A and T-568B. Both these sequences are almost the same except that placing of the orange and green wires are interchanged.

What is the necessity that wires at both the ends must be placed in the same order? This is because this might be used as a crossover ethernet cable. And crossover ethernet cable must have same wires placed on both the ends. Both the types of ethernet cable can be used in almost everywhere. Even though, the type of Ethernet cable to be used depends. Most of the premade Ethernet cable use T-568B. But T-568A is the most popular and the most commonly used Ethernet cable in the world.

Here, we shall arrange all the eight wires in a T-568A sequence to crimp them. Hold the wires tightly with your index finger and thumb and keep a tight grip on the wires. Then, join them close and stiffen the wires. Slowly free your fingers from the wires and make sure that all the wires stay in the same order. Keeping the wires in order, cut the excess wires with the cutter. Only a half inch or one should remain and cut out the remaining wire from them. The wires should be short enough so as to squeeze the outer jacket into the connector. crimping the connector over the jacket. This will make a secure connection.

Step 5: Slide the connector on and crimp it:

Take the Ethernet cable and place it so that the clip part is facing outwards. The green wire should face the floor or the ceiling depending on the orientation. Slide the wires inside the connector such that each of the wires is inserted into its own slot. If you notice any wire has jumped out of its place, then remove the wires out of the connector and insert it again. Make sure that all the eight wires should touch the end os the connector.

Take the crimping tool and slide the connector in the crimping slot. Use some force and push the wire into the connector so that it should fit tight into the connector and the wires shouldn’t rearrange their order. After you are done with everything, pull out the Ethernet cable from the connector with a little energy (not with you full strength) so as to check the strength and fitness of the crimping.

That’s all! You are now ready with crimping your own custom Ethernet cable of any length. Hope, you will find this tutorial easy to crimp an Ethernet cable of any length. Now there is no need to roll the excess cable and use the whole length of the cable for only one purpose.

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