What do you use as 'Powercables' ?

[caboosebe]

Hello,

 

I've seen some make custom 'Powercables' on their models. I'm calling them so, cause I just don't know the exact name ^^

I've seen some on their Obliterators and Daemon Princes. Some use it as 'intestines' of their plague marines

They look a lot like the meltagun's 'Powercable'.

 

Picture:

http://dorrin.files.wordpress.com/2008/04/melta-gun.jpg

 

But without the gun and skull-oath.

 

 

If someone could point me in the right direction of material-use, I would be very gratefull ^^

 

 

Thank you

 

 

Caboose

[Pig Of Sparta]

Guitar String. That's what I've been using anyway :lol:. I just asked around my workmates until I found someone who played guitar and blagged a couple of broken strings off them. It's a bit fiddly to work with sometimes but the results can be well worth the effort :)

 

James

[Gurth]

The way I normally make cables like this is to take a length of copper wire and wrap more of that wire around it — this gives you a cable that you can cut to length easily as well as bend into a shape that it will keep. Another way is probably to buy bass guitar strings, but I think (never having handled them myself) they're steel, and that makes them hard to cut and hard to shape.

 

The cheap way to get a load of copper wire, BTW, is to find an old, broken electrical device that has a transformer or electromagnet inside of it. An old computer monitor (with a picture tube, not the modern flatscreen type) has probably hundreds of metres of copper wire in it, for example.

[caboosebe]

Thank you, James and Gurth, for the quick replies. I'll try both out ^^

[Kurgan the Lurker]

One of our contest sponsors, Dragon Forge Design does cabling in various sizes.

[SquigBait]

I was going to suggest DragonForge as well. I am going to be investing in their cabling soon. As stated, Guitar wire can be a pain to work with and unless you have a special hardened clipper, you will destroy your clippers trimming it down to size.

 

As a general note on salvaging old electronics, ALWAYS be careful as capacitors may still be charged and some of them really pack a punch if you discharge them. I have blown apart screwdrivers as proof.

[Brother Nihm]

A word of note on the guitar strings, it can be hard to get them to retain their shape (curve) when they are of a heavier gauge.

Case in point:

[caboosebe]

Thank you Nihm. Even for going through the trouble of posting a picture ;). Seeing the result, I think I'll try the harder but better looking guitar-way

[GhostLegion]

caution with the guitar string...watch out for the inner cable! i dont know how many times ive stabbed myself with the cable...and damn its sharp, slips right between the ridges on your fingerprint...

[Epistolary_Kalphanian]

I buy 'designer chokers' from arts and crafts stores. They're like guitar wires, but much^500 more flexible, given they're not the incarnation of Satan in all of his tube-ish badassery.

[Brother_Dan'l]

A word of note on the guitar strings, it can be hard to get them to retain their shape (curve) when they are of a heavier gauge.

Case in point:

Never having even touched a guitar... Are there different sizes to the strings and if so which size is best? And can you cut them with plain old wire cutters (around the same size as GW's snips) or do you need something a bit beefier?

[Brother Valerius]

You can use plain wire cutters, they're not that intense. They do come in different sizes: both within a pack of strings (that's what gives them different tones), and between packs of strings (for different feel when you play them). I would go buy a pack of strings, see if those match the size you want, and then buy a pack of a smaller/bigger gauge accordingly.

 

Definitely have to second the advice to be careful. Guitar string is surprisingly SHARP if you poke yourself with the end. Makes me wince every time I see someone who has the strings all coiled up at the tuning pegs on their guitar, those people are asking to hurt someone.

[Gearhead]

I play guitar, so I get to work with it a lot. As people have said, be really careful. You won't be dealing with some of the tensile problems (when those things snap....), but the inner core is pretty sharp. I don't know what you mean by GW snips, but I use wirecutters. I'm going to assume they're beefier.

 

Strings: The B and high E strings will be easiest to work with, being the thinnest; but you wont' get the "Power Cable" effect with them, they don't have that distinct ribbing. G and D strings willl be good on infantry, A and low E good for vehicles. Bass is an entirely different beast, they're bigguns. You'll be hard pressed to put them on infantry and make it look plausible. The largest I've seen was on a super heavy, the B string off a five string bass, which can encompass a marine's leg. I've also seen that string on a chaos dread.

 

When it comes to working with them, I just continue to use the wire cutters. If you're careful with your pressure, you can bend the strings around them and manipulate them like that. If you think you'll make a cut, pliars work too. This ain't green stuff you're working with, you need man tools.

[Brother Valerius]

I'm thinking the GW snips should work ok for guitar string. When stringing my guitar I always used a pair of wire snippers that were more or less equivalent to the GW ones, and they worked fine to trim the ends off. Maybe not for bass strings, but for your average guitar string I think they should be fine.

[Gearhead]

I used fer real deal wirecutters for the bass string. Like, the kind you use to cut a fence. Most people don't thave that though; if you need to cut a larger bas string, you'll need more than snips.