DIY cables - CAT5

[MartinT]

The thick stuff? How about kitchen, solid core wire?

Never tried it, but 6A twin + earth I used to use a lot. Strip it out of the sheath, discard the earth wire, twist the red & black cores in a hand drill bit until tightly wound with the cores crossing each other at close to 90 degrees. The result: low inductance speaker cable, cheap and sounds good.

[Welder]

I can’t find the info atm but I was under the impression that there was a change in construction standard from Cat5 and 5e variety at the introduction of Cat6; something to do with the increased bandwidth requirements.
Anyway, as I understand it the dielectric changed and the copper wire used was 100% oxygen free, whatever significance that has

I should point out here that I have at least one foot in the objectivist, use a coat hanger faction; best to ignore the cable pics in my galley and anything I’ve written about the endless cables I’ve made.

Well, like the OP, what does one do with piles of bits of wire if not twist them all together weld them and try to electrocute oneself at times of intense boredom ?

Course, if AlexUK had persevered instead of whimping out after a few turns due to wrist ache we would now be being regaled with stories of his wrist power in more pleasurable pursuits. Every cloud and all that....

Ahem, I digress.
Twisting together the little bits of pretty wire enclose inside the Cat cable, first in pairs and then pairs to quads etc can give interesting results and its less tiring on the wrist for those of you who may have moved into the novelty adult toy department and not require any further wrist strength.

Even more exciting is to twist together differing thicknesses and shapes of cable into your Cat6 config.

In short, bin them.

[HighFidelityGuy]

I can’t find the info atm but I was under the impression that there was a change in construction standard from Cat5 and 5e variety at the introduction of Cat6; something to do with the increased bandwidth requirements.
Anyway, as I understand it the dielectric changed and the copper wire used was 100% oxygen free, whatever significance that has

From what I understand the main difference between CAT6 and earlier types is that CAT6 has thicker insulation on the conductors. The thicker insulation also results in the overall cable diameter being thicker. On cables I have it also has an X shaped plastic former that runs down the centre of the cable to allow the 4 twisted pairs to be separated from each other. This all reduces crosstalk (in TCP/IP applications) between the twisted pairs. This X shaped former also makes CAT6 cables much stiffer than CAT5 or 5E. I think the conductor gauge is also bigger in some CAT6 cables.

With the conductors being more spaced apart I would expect the capacitance of CAT6 cable to be slightly lower than that of CAT5 or 5E but that's just a guess.

[Stratmangler]

From what I understand the main difference between CAT6 and earlier types is that CAT6 has thicker insulation on the conductors. The thicker insulation also results in the overall cable diameter being thicker. On cables I have it also has an X shaped plastic former that runs down the centre of the cable to allow the 4 twisted pairs to be separated from each other. This all reduces crosstalk (in TCP/IP applications) between the twisted pairs. This X shaped former also makes CAT6 cables much stiffer than CAT5 or 5E. I think the conductor gauge is also bigger in some CAT6 cables.

With the conductors being more spaced apart I would expect the capacitance of CAT6 cable to be slightly lower than that of CAT5 or 5E but that's just a guess.

I instal data cabling for a living - the wire gauge specification for Cat5e and Cat6 is the same 22AWG - 24AWG.
It's high purity copper too, but not specified as OFHC copper.

The twisting in the pairs has a higher turn/metre ratio with Cat6 for better RF rejection.
The four pairs of wires are also separated in Cat6, with an X shaped former, and this provides greater crosstalk rejection between the pairs.

Cat6 cable has a slightly larger cross sectional diameter than Cat5e, and this is due to the X shaped former.

Something that often gets overlooked is that most Cat5e installations are capable of supporting Gigabit working, as the improved wiring spec is only part of the story.
Gigabit networking uses all four cable pairs, whereas 10Base or 100Base only requires the use of two pairs.