[Chromisdesigns]

I braided 3 25 ft runs of cat 5 cable, and it is a royal pain!  You can braid for a little while, then it all balls up because it was impossible for one person to control the ends.  So you would have to stop, go to the other end and detangle, go back to the other end and braid, over and over.  2 25ft runs for a stereo pair was a lot of frustration!

Russellc

To braid long lengths, roll up the strands on a core (like a fat dowel, or 1/2 a paper towel roll, each strand on a separate core) and then braid away.  With the strands rolled up, it's exactly like juggling cats! No problem at all.

If you ever saw the Flying Karamazov's cat-juggling, you'll understand how this works

[PDR]

Another way......we braided cat-5 in no time like this.

Nail on my deck rail....attach all 3 of your lines to the nail.
Roll up one line on a 8" dowel, take the other 2 lines and attach the free ends
to a 24" dowel, one line to each end. Stand back your 25' with the longer dowel and make the 2 lines taught.
Holding the 24" dowel in your fist simply turn it to the right, the other guy feeds the 8"dowel down between the other 2 lines, then you turn the 24" dowel to the left and then he feeds the 8" dowel up....repeat over and over. This will give you a nice tight even braid. 25' will take about 10 min.

These will take a bit longer.....

[Speedskater]

I braided 3 25 ft runs of cat 5 cable, and it is a royal pain!  You can braid for a little while, then it all balls up because it was impossible for one person to control the ends.  So you would have to stop, go to the other end and detangle, go back to the other end and braid, over and over.  2 25ft runs for a stereo pair was a lot of frustration!
Russellc

I really don't think that you should braid the multiple CAT5 cables. When you connect all the solid colored wires to one terminal and all the striped colored wires to the other terminal, you have the very accurate manufactured  twisting cable designed to work at extremely high frequencies. All braiding the cables does is add length to the cable and make a lumpy mess.

[cheap-Jack]

If you are in the US or Canada, just get a roll of Romex® (NM), size 14AWd by 3 conductor plus ground.  Hook the Black & Red wires together, then the White & bare together.  This equivalent to a 11AWG wire, it's pre-twisted and it's budget priced. 

The bad part is, it's ugly and very stiff.

I'd never use building wires for auido. Why? Most if not all, are recyled copper re-smelt & redrawn from copper wires torn down from demolished buildings. Yes, they are cheap to buy.

I only use oxygen-free pure copper for loudspeakers cabling.

c-J

[cheap-Jack]

Hi.

Another way......we braided cat-5 in no time like this.

Yes, connect end-to-end 2x 4-paired CAT5e (100MHz) or cat 6 (200MHz)= 16 x AWG#24=AWG#12. Large enough size for home loudspeaker connectioin.

But braiding conductors will increase the conductor-to-conductor capacitance bigtime. Not friendly at all to many amps, particularly SS amps, which are not designed to handle loads of too large capacitance.

c-J

[Speedskater]

"c-J" I thought that you were a tube amp kind of guy.  The SS amps that were overly sensitive to moderate speaker cable capacitance are now distant history.  OK, it's still possible to make a cable that will upset lots of SS amps. But those bad cables don't look like CAT5 bundles.