Any idea where to find copper sleeving?

A

AreEss

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So not a typo. I'm looking for actual copper sleeving. Not gold mylar. Not copper colored PET. Actual honest to god copper. I've been through SVC and CableOrganizer and some specialty suppliers, and I can't find it.

Does anyone know where I can find it? Yes, I know most copper sleeving is actually copper and tinned, like 3M's stuff. I need actual natural colored copper. It's absolutely vital that it be, well, copper.

The EMI shielding is just a side benefit. This is mostly an aesthetic thing. And yes, you can expect to see it in the worklogs. (Oh noes, AreEss is creating another show PC!)

Thanks in advance!
 
so you intend on this copper being visual? because if you do you may want to reconsider as copper corrodes in open air and wont be shiny nice looking for long. EMI shielding can be accomplished otherwise.
 
Darkala said:
so you intend on this copper being visual? because if you do you may want to reconsider as copper corrodes in open air and wont be shiny nice looking for long. EMI shielding can be accomplished otherwise.
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This is utterly wrong. Pure copper gradually ages in open air.
http://www.corrosion-doctors.org/MatSelect/corrcopper.htm

If what you said above was true, then fancy copper heatsinks would look like utter shit when you got them, because they're not in a sealed environment. Not to mention that they'd stop working worth a damn after a few months as the contact area started to corrode as well. So yes, if you were to use pure unalloyed copper with no treating whatsoever, it'd be green after a few months. Ever seen a green pure copper heatsink? No? Know why? Alloying and coatings. Same thing you're going to find on most outdoor copper wire. And on any copper mesh, out of necessity. (Failing that, I have a whole bag of tricks to deal with pure unalloyed copper. No, not the first time. Just the first time for mesh.)
Hell, at this point, copper that ages has become a specialty product, as opposed to vice versa.
 
Have you thought of using solder wick or copper grounding braids? I'm not sure if you can get them untinned though :(
 
penguin said:
Have you thought of using solder wick or copper grounding braids? I'm not sure if you can get them untinned though :(
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That was actually one of the first things I thought of. The problem is that while I can get them, doing wire wraps with either is nigh on impossible. They will look like crap because you can't get it to stick to itself, and it's not at all sturdy. Think electrical tape wrapping, but without any adhesive and the tape is more like paper.

The problem is that I don't want to do Black/Stainless because, well, damnit, that's been done to death. Show of hands, people with black/silver or black/stainless? Yeah. Show of hands, black/copper? Hey look, nobody!

But.. it's really starting to look like it's an impossibility for want of loom. Especially since I need odd sizes, like 1/8". :(
 
How about using coaxial cable? Get a piece of RG213 and carefully cut off the insulator. You should be able to "bunch up" the braid to remove the dielectric
 
^^ could be the cheapest/easiest way to go using the Coaxial cable inner sheilding.

Had some other thoughts--copper soldering wick--
upside-easy, use double stick tape, wrap your wires, then use the Copper wick to wrap in spirals as well.
downside-wires will be stiffer, copper doesn't stretch, and everytime I need to buy that solder wick stuff I choke ($2US for like 5ft of the stuff?). Imagine wrapping ONE Molex lead, spiral, easily 4X the overal length? Each Foot of wire run could cost $8 +/- a lot more than most any other sleeving method.

I would vote for copper foil leafing instead--
upside-cheaper since the adhesive method allows you to use almost any leftovers to fill in blanks, over and over again. Brush on the adhesive, lay a sheet on brush on sheet, use remainder.
downside-slow to get complete coverage of all 4 wires, total length. If you don't laquer/seal it afterwards, you could end up with conductive specs of Copper all over components=shorts galore! Won't look like Sleeving, but will be pure copper.
 
Leafing on wires? Are you nuts? Leafing is easy to peel off, and is utterly not what I'm looking for. I'm looking for sleeving. No way I'm gonna try and put leaf on braided sleeve either. That's just a disaster to think of.
And again, solder wick would look like crap, not to mention take too much time. I have to be able to reproduce this fairly quickly. Prettification gets a max 10 hours labor, excepting functional. While reduced EMI from copper shielding is a nice functional thing, it's more prettification than functional, and thusly gets a max 10 hours.

gimpy, you so get the gold star for finding the closest yet. Unfortunately, it's tinned copper, or 'natural' metal, which means it's silvery. (CableOrganizer.com has the same stuff.) I found copper-copper EMI/RFI at Metex Corp, so hopefully they have samples and/or a reseller that can get me small quantity.
Did I mention they also have Tempest-grade EMI/RFI shielded windows? Oh dear, this thing is going to look damn sexy with a window that can pass EFI/RFI leakage tests.
 
Another idea is to get some of the tinned sleeving and then just electro plate it with copper.
 
I was trying to think of the most available methods...most craft stores carry leafing.

I've done all kinds of nutty things to get the look I wanted. Even hand drilled .25mm holes through 1/4 acrylic 200+ times for a fiber optic starfield that was accurate to a given lat/long and date/year.
 
gimpy said:
Another idea is to get some of the tinned sleeving and then just electro plate it with copper.
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Oh man. No frigging thanks. Honestly, I'm starting to think that maybe Black/Beige would be a more interesting way to go, with copper trimming. How many black and BEIGE cases you ever seen? NONE! (And I like beige.)

Dgephri said:
I was trying to think of the most available methods...most craft stores carry leafing.
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Yeah, part of the problem here is that it has to A) be repeatable B) be reasonably quick once I've built the first one. Well, most parts of it.

Dgephri said:
I've done all kinds of nutty things to get the look I wanted. Even hand drilled .25mm holes through 1/4 acrylic 200+ times for a fiber optic starfield that was accurate to a given lat/long and date/year.
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Sometimes, but very rarely, I do crazy stuff like that. One of the more involved customer systems was a dual Athlon MP. It has the OpenGL "Gears" benchmark airbrushed on both sides, and that was the quick and easy part. An entire drive bay setup had to be built basically from scratch, additional supports welded in to support the weight, and there's close to 10 feet of copper tube including two 'coils' as part of it's watercooling system. (Yes, the coils were hand bent and polished.)

This one needs to be a lot more reproducible. At least the bulk of it. The more.. hardcore stuff, not so much. Things like replacing the 18AWG with silver 16AWG. Replacing all the capacitors in the power supply with better ones. Replacing MOSFETs in the power supply to reduce heat and improve regulation. Tearing apart the PSU case and painting it and replacing the original sticker on it. Custom machined video card heatsink.

Me? Go overboard? Naaaaaaaaah...
 
Nice? NICE?!
I don't do nice.
I do "viewers make puddles." I do "are you frigging nuts?" I do "did you really replace all those capacitors JUST FOR LOOKS?!"

It pays to have friends with SMT rigs. :)
 
That's exactly it, Pugger! Exactly!

Now I just need to figure out how to put a nonconductive layer on top of that stuff. The gauge of the individual strands is way smaller than I'd figured on, which presents a bit of a problem. :/
 
Tygon tubing? Does it need to be flexible after installation? Just thinking outloud...
 
AreEss said:
That's exactly it, Pugger! Exactly!

Now I just need to figure out how to put a nonconductive layer on top of that stuff. The gauge of the individual strands is way smaller than I'd figured on, which presents a bit of a problem. :/
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Glad i could help mate :)

Found it after 5 mins of searching on Google :p

http://cableorganizer.com/heat-shrink/heat-shrink2.htm :) clear heatshrink there...

also uv reactive :p

HTH

Dan
 
Really thin walled clear tubing might be your best option, depending on the flexibility you need. Heatshrink would probably by cheapest though (Not that you care :p)
 
*bangs head against wall*

The primary reason for avoiding any sort of 'additional' covering is that you introduce glare and such, which makes it readily apparent that it's not exposed copper. Except that I really want it to look like exposed copper, since there's going to be a lot of exposed copper.

But.. yeah, I think clear heatshrink may be the only option. :(
 
The jewelry industry has a hot dip made of laquer to protect brass jewelry. I think you could spray the sleeving with a clear rattle can paint/laquer. There could be flaking problems if it were flexed a lot, which probably wouldn't happen in a computer case. I think Krylon makes an acrilic clear that just might do the trick.
 
Hmmm might be method in webbee's madness...

Matt Laquer is available... and a few dustings to that (not thick as to coat) would maybe enough to do the job :p and it shouldnt flake if you take care :D

Plastikote / Krylon (sp) do a plastic sealer that would do the job and is designed to be used on plastics that bend and move :D thus not crackin...

Again all the best

Dan
 
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