Yes it’s feasible... don’t bother after that. For starters a
Soca style pin won’t accept larger than a 12ga
wire no matter if
crimp or solder type. After that, yep there is certain code violations amongst them use of listed gear.
I hear you about, about having had it with the
multi-cable you are using - got two six
foot high stacks of bad
Socapex cable in front of my work table myself. Can’t see over them... My assistants had at best get busy with them, given they get freed up from other projects. Sparking/shocking cable is always a bad thing, and here for me the worst of them would tend to be ones that are bad in keyway
strain relief or failed insert that has spun.
Sound like it’s about time to go to school in learning how to fix the
multi-cable you have so as to make it safe and function as designed. Most theater supply and or lighting companies should as a theory be able to teach you/your TD or ME how to fix such stuff perhaps for a hourly price - I know I have done so for some of our customers. Parts are not cheap - like a buck or two per pin, proper
crimp tools... let’s just say rental would be possibly worth it. This granted that going to school for
multi-cable would tend to be anywhere from hack at best in instruction to going to school with the “Ship” as it were who has been doing it actively for about eight years and has seen anything from some years past
Sting’s NY City
park rained out concert where water got into the plugs and they arched to say the least, to about to go stainless steel on the insert part due to keyway wear problems.
Socapex is a specific brand - kind of like
Leko. In general it means a say Litton/
Veam VSC series (often the most popular that other brands are based upon),
Socapex (two types), L&K/Link, Lex, Kupo, Creative
Stage Lighting and TMB also with two types as other suppliers amongst others for such plugs that are often also standardized parts between them. After that, it’s a question of
crimp verses solder.
The
crimp tools are very expensive - like over $250.00 for the four pin indent
crimp tool itself and almost as much for it’s turret head pin spacer. Value of this and
heat shrink around the exposed parts of the pins is that once crimped, there is no way for it to fail. Not possible unless the
crimp tool is set wrong for that
crimp to fail. On solder type terminals, there is irons that don’t get hot enough or have sufficient
power behind them to maintain that temperature, and in general solder terminals that have “cold solders” in pulling free from a
terminal. Once it gets loose you now have “liquid electricity” by way of melted solder floating about inside your
plug. Very dangerous such solder plugs unless done properly. If done properly, they are of course efficient enough but they must be done properly and what’s your typical Radio Shack gun won’t do so properly.
Anyway, that’s a start into the world of
Soco cable as it’s called as if
Leko but not specific to brand.
Bare wires and sparks are a bad thing. Building your own multi-cables might be cost effective but only if you have the tools to do so and dealer account for discounted plugs and cable. If not, it’s more cost effective to buy new or fix.
As for other brands... the
Socapex 19pin
plug has now always been the “industry standard.” A
Veam or
Pyle National multi-pin
plug was in earlier years just as often found. Very rugged often, just not as easy to use. This much less even more of a pain in the rear to deal with or fix.
On multi-cables, you either
fan-in/fan-out from them by way of special plugs that have six individual cables that terminate in plugs, or use
Soco mounted boxes with panel mounted plugs to terminate the
Socapex cable - this if your gear doesn’t already terminate in
Socapex such as
Socapex outlets to the dimmers. Such fan-outs and or boxes are available from most dealers that sell the
Soco (
Soco meaning an in general brand of 19 pin VSC or
Socapex standard
plug.) Also just about anyone selling
stage equipment can special make such gear. The best of all
fan-in and or Fan-out
plug type is the
Veam KK-Clamp type
plug. As opposed to all other forms of
strain relief, most manufacturers of two screw or all
in one form of weather tight
strain relief admit that the
Veam KK clamp for a fan-out is the best design and are just waiting for it’s patient to go public. Very rare that such a
strain relief that goes from
Soco to
stage pin goes bad or fails - we are talking really really rare.
As Van says, nope... you cannot distribute a mult-cable into
stage pin. The
multi-cable must terminate into a proper either
plug or box that’s designed for doing so - inner conductors are not sufficiently protected or designed for exposure or
fanning out. Gotta terminate in a box or single
plug. It’s possible to with proper
strain relief terminate
multi-cable into a
stage drop box that either panel mounts or fan’s in or fan’s out and that’s code compliant. Also that would be how 10ga
wire in a
multi-cable is normally done, but it’s cumbersome and not very
portable. If it’s something that does not get moved much, sure and only to a professionally made termination
drop box or assembly. If moved or
portable, it’s multi-pin
plug so you at very least can remove the box.
Way back when I used to deal with some 10ga cloth/rubber
drop boxes that dated back to 1926. They were still in good condition believe it or not, just didn’t have a
ground - who will have thunk it way back when. Instead they just isolated the linesets so the
ground fault/short was not traveling up the
wire rope hanging the pipe. Touch the pipe while on an aluminum ladder
etc and you now just became a
ground path. These cables I did
ground by way of loosing a few circuits.
That was way back when however. Note the condition of the old cable that was thrown out... If you cannot read off it’s
jacket a brand,
wire gauge/
conductor number on the cable, it’s not code compliant to be using even if still in good shape. Time to replace not fix it. Ever so many details.
If nothing else, it should not be that expensive to have such cables in doubt sent in for professional repair. This in addition to I believe it’s “Tools for Stagecraft”, TMB amongst others that sell “
Soco cable testers.” Very useful items, good to test your cable before it’s use - every time it’s used.