Done !
I managed to do something decent. If you disagree that's fine, you are welcome to come here and do better.
It should hold up, it's functional, safe, the rest is cosmetics...
Only hope to get the job done without losing sanity was to hold the plug in a vice. I do have a tiny vice but... well because it's tiny, its 'C' clamp can't open wide enough to grab the edge of the bench.
So had to mount the vice on a thin piece of scrap wood (left over of the oak parquet I installed in the bedroom the other day....), then clamp that to the bench using a large C clamp.
Then suck the old solder from the cups, put new solder in, tin the wires, fit the earth wire first... then once that's done the cable stays in place so the other two wires are easier to solder. Then clean the flux residues.
It's as tight a fit as it can get for a 3x1.5mm2 mains cable... Were the wires just one mm shorter, I would not even consider the job...
Anyway, it sure looks better now.... will look even better once I receive the socket to replace the TE side of things. Don't hold your breath though, the shipping delay on Ebay is given between 8 and 13 days... even though the seller is local / in France. I guess he is lazy, or has a different full time job and only does Ebay on the side... I don't know.
Okies... a good
start, but now I feel obligated to pass on a few "advanced cable wrangling" pointers learned over many years of making custom cables.
First... before you even prep your wires... select and slip a piece of polyolefin (the flexible kind; the hard crunchy kind is PVC) heat-shrink tubing over the cable itself to use as as a strain-relief. Select to be large enough that it slides easily over the cable, but will still fit inside the outer housing of your connector.
If you need to color-code, put a short length then a longer length for the strain-relief. Slip both several feet down the cable or even all the way to the plug end, such that heat from soldering and heat-gun work cannot make them shrink prematurely.
Next, don't fret too much over the wire tails being a little too long. Once you've soldered your connector as you've done here, pull the cable through the housing such that you have ~500-1000mm to work with. Using your heat gun, heat the outer sheathing of the cable such that it is hot to the touch, but not hot enough you that it starts to melt and you can leave fingerprints in it.
Now, grip the cable with the cold part in one hand (get a right proper
"wanking for all yer worth" grip here
) and the heated part of the cable in the other, then pull/slide that hand down the length of the hot part of the cable towards the just-soldered connector. It usually does not take much force to make the outer sheathing walk down the individual wires such that your
"too much too long tails" are again covered in the sheathing, and all nice and tidy again. Lay the cable out flat on your bench, and
wait for the sheathing to cool completely.Now, it is a simple matter of working your "strain relief" heat-shrink tubing back up the cable, through the outer housing, then placed such that it can be shrunk onto the outer sheathing. Heat-shrink the tubing, then reassemble the outer housing to the connector as you've done here, and of course also shrink the bit on the other end if you're doing color-coding.
For the really finicky customer, you can make your heat-shrink strain relief of two lengths of heat-shrink; one the color you're using, then another slightly longer in clear polyolefin, such that when assembled, the clear is over the colored tubing and extends 10-15mm past it down the cable. This makes a truly "premium" look to the finished product.
I don't expect you to take it apart and do it all over... just passing on a few tips for making it look and feel better next time you do one of these.I'll try and find some pics to add here later... I'm on my MacPro right now and its time to get the kiddles ready for school.
mnem