Disassemble / Assemble a Snake to run to the front of the church... ?

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Thom Casey, CTS, DSCE on September 19, 2012 at 4:17am

If you haven't already purchased the snake, you can order it as "tinned and prepped"  basically it will come fully assembled on the box end and the fan end will be all cut, labled and shrink wrapped with the conductors already tinned with solder.  Just pull the snake from the stage end to the booth and then solder all of the connectors on the fan in the booth.  If you haven't measured already, pull a string through the pipe (to replace the string that is in there now) and measure it's length.  If you already have the snake.  Carefully disassemble the connectors from the fan (don't cut but unsolder) and then pull it through. and resolder the ends.  Is that helpful??  Good luck!  I can help you source the snake if you can't find it through your regular channels (I don't think Guitar Center will order one tinned and prepped)

Permalink Reply by David D Waggoner on September 19, 2012 at 3:35pm

How many channels are on the snake?  6 inches is pretty big. 

I would suggest getting a fish tape to pull it thru.  Most snakes have a good bit of unwrapped individual wires at the board end (the one going thru the tube) and I am positive you could get most snakes (assuming not too many leads) to go thru it without removing the xlr connectors.

Get yourself a good roll or 2 of gaffers tape. (every sound tech should have one) and tape several of the xlr ends together, probably no bigger than about what will fit thru a 4 or 4 1/4 inch hole. Just behind them, tape another set of xlr ends, continuing to keep the overall size under 4 1/2 ". You will find you get fewer and fewer ends in each set as the number of loose wires increases.  Hopefully you will be able to accomodate all your channels that way.  Place a very heavy long wool sock over the entire taped up end of the cable and tape it to either the cable jacket or the entire collection of individual wires, wrapping back to the cable jacket. This will help protect the ends as it goes thru the tube.  

You have 6 inches in your tube.  The extra inch and a half is for going around bends, and the thickness of the tape and sock. The whole assembly needs to be rather loose in the tube.

Hook your fish tape to the cable. Some have a metal jacket at the end with a loop for hooking.  WIthout that you will need to hook it FIRMLY to the sock and tape it back to the cable jacket.  If you do have the metal jacket, hook the fish tape to it and then tape them together.  Be sure to put a good wrap around the whole assembly at the front end of the sock.

Pull gently thru the tube.  It will take at least 2 people. One to pull the fish tape and the other to feed/gently push the cable into the tube at the other end.

If you cannot get the overall size to 4 1/2 or under, you will have to unsolder as Thom suggested.  (maybe only a few ends)

Permalink Reply by Dave Hartwell on September 20, 2012 at 10:22pm

Haven't purchased the snake yet; is "tinned and prepped" something that you can get from something like guitarcenter.com?

Permalink Reply by Thom Casey, CTS, DSCE on September 20, 2012 at 11:57pm

I don't think so.  But if you have a local music store that is a dealer for Rapco or Horizon, they should be able to get it for you.  If not let me know.