Steampunk USB Cable

I’ve seen many creative Instructables on DIY steampunk keyboards, mice and other USB peripherals, but many of these don’t include “steampunking” an important part of these devices – the USB cable.

This Instructable will show you how to make a quick, easy and inexpensive steampunk USB cable for your retrofitted, retro-historical steampunk or dieselpunk devices.

Note: This Instructable was inspired in part by the beautiful Steampunk Mouse, posted by Miss Betsy. But this Steampunk USB cable doesn't require as many tools, or as much skill as is required to recreate Miss Betsy's steampunk cable. I also borrowed a few ideas from an Instructable on Cloth Covered Banana Cables.

Materials:
• Bootlace
• USB Cable
• “F” type quick connect video adaptor
• Altoids tin
• Glue (Crazy or Gorilla)
• Heat shrinkable wire wrap (or brass eyelets)
• Gold or bronze metallic paint
• Female-to-female "F" type connector (optional)

Tools:
• Soldering iron & solder
• Exacto blade (or razor blade)
• Dremel (or similar rotary tool)
• Pliers
• Wire cutter
• Paint brush
• Lighter
• Clamp or vice

If you are starting with a USB cable with plugs at both ends, cut off the end you don’t need. If you are starting with a mouse or keyboard, de-solder the cable from the device. (To do this properly, you should use a de-soldering iron, but I don’t have one!) You may want to take a photograph or careful notes, so you know how to re-solder when you’re done.

With your Exacto or razor blade, make an incision around the cable, at the base of the plug, to remove the plastic tubing, being ever so careful to not cut through to the wires. Then carefully slice the tubing length-wise, (kind of like you were skinning a snake;-) Be carefully not to damage the wire shielding, as this will make it very difficult to pass through the lace.

You want to select a lace that fits your color scheme. You also need one that’s not too thin, or you wont be able to push the cable through, and not too thick, or else the final product will look like sagging nylon stocking!;-)

I bought three or four pairs of bootlaces before I decided on this rust colored lace that matches nicely with my soon-to-be-posted "Decopunk Keyboard."

Cut the plastic tips off your boot-lace. If it has a string running through it, remove. (The one I chose came sans string). Stick a screwdriver into the lace a few inches to widen the opening.

Put a small piece of tape around the tip of the wire mesh at the end of the USB cable, so it feeds through the lace without catching or snagging the lace, then feed the cable through the lace. (Kind of like an inch-worm… It’s a tedious process, but well worth it:-)

Once the whole cable is laced, trim the other end of the lace, to match the cable length.

Take a piece of your heat shrinkable wire wrap (about an inch), and feed the laced cable through until the wire wrap reaches the plug.

Heat this with a lighter until it shrinks tight around the lace. (Be careful not to burn the plug, the lace or yourself!)

If you want, now is a good time to add a little bit of gold metallic paint to the base of the plug where it might show.

Feed the cable through your “F” type video adaptor until it reaches the base of the plug. (If you have trouble feeding the laced wire through the adaptor, you can put a small piece of shrink wrap tubing on the tip).

Eat a box of Altoids. Save the tin.

Remove the lid from the base by prying open the hinges with a small screwdriver.

This is a good time to bust out your steampunk goggles, as I’m told flying metal splinters in your eyes can be very painful. If you don’t have steampunk goggles, any goggles, or even sunglasses are better than nothing.

Cut a piece from one side of the tin, about 5cm wide (just under 2 inches) with your Dremel or similar small rotary tool. You want this piece to be from top to bottom and edge to edge, just before the curved corners.

Place your USB plug on your cut piece of tin, and mark the inside of the tin on either side of the plug, so you know where to bend.

Use your pliers to bend the tin into a rectangle, and place the tin sheath you have just made over the USB plug to check the fit. Make sure to point the “lip” of the tin up, and the edge you cut down. (You also want to position the sheath so that the seam will face down when plugged in).

Take the tin sheath off and use your rotary tool to trim off any excess tin. Be very careful, as the tin may have sharp edges, and will certainly get hot after a bit of grinding.

After you've trimmed off any excess tin, replace the sheath, and squeeze it a bit with your pliers. Place the plug in a vice or clamp of some sort, so the sheath is squeezed snuggly against the plug, and then solder the seam. (Try to make this line of solder as neat as possible).
Use your rotary tool to grind of any excess solder.

Paint the underside (or the whole plug) with gold metallic paint to hide the solder seam.

If you plan to attach this cable to a keyboard (as I plan to do), you might want to consider using a gold female-to-female video connector to mount the cable to the keyboard. Just punch the plastic out of the center with a screwdriver, and add a bit of heat shrinkable wire wrap to the cable where it meets the connector.

If you plan to re-attach a plug to the other end, there are a number of fine Instructables which will give you directions on how to do that. Here's one that might be helpful: How to repair a moulded USB cable.

This Instructable also has a detailed description of hacking a USB cable at Step 10, (although it doesn't mention the two wires that handle data): Mini USB powered Tiffany Lamp.

After I finished this Instructable, I found some brass eyelets at my local 99 cents store which I realized would fit perfectly inside the "F" type video plug on my Steampunk USB Cable. While the laced cable fits perfectly through the eyelet, I couldn't get the eyelet over the shrinkable wire wrap.

In an attempt to shrink the wire wrap just a bit more, I ended up burning the bootlace! So I removed the wire wrap, unlaced the cable, and fed it back through the other end. (The burn will be concealed inside the keyboard).

So here are instructions for using brass eyelets instead of shrinkable wire wrap. I think this final product has a much cleaner, "steampunkier" look.

Glue the eyelet to the base of the "F" type video adaptor, and glue another eyelet to the female-to-female video connector. (I wish I had some Gorilla Glue for this;-)

Thread the laced cable through the adaptor and connector.

Attach the spliced end to your favorite steampunk or dieselpunk device.

Enjoy the compliments on your new Steampunk USB Cable!

If you like this Instructable, please consider rating it (just to the right of the introduction), and/or voting for it in one of the contests I've entered. If you decide to make your own, please post pictures!

Note: I had originally intended this cable for my Decopunk Keyboard, but decided it was too short. So instead I attached it to my Steampunk USB mini-Lantern.