[Big Red Machine]

I would use the #36 AWG wire, especially if the label refers to it as #36 SN, or single coated insulation. You will need 88 strands and six inches to come close to what I use. There will be a slight increase in RAC but not enough to have to make big changes to accommodate.

Stick two smooth nails, 3 inches apart,  into a block of wood and cut the heads off. Tape the end of the coil wire next to one nail, to one side and a little beyond the actual nail and wrap the thing around both nails 88 times. Then place a 1/8 inch wide strip of crepe paper masking tape over all of the wires on one side of the post where you taped your start wire down, just to the inside of the nail. Then gather up the start wire and tape it and all of the other side wires together on the other side of the nail, just to the inside of the nail, away from the actual loop curves. These should be a fairly tight bundles and both at the same end where the start wire and end wire ended up.

Here is the solder pot:
$30 from MCM



Kinda skanky, the dross on top:



Yes, there is solder in there:



Set-up at 3 inches using drywall screws:



88 wraps of number 36 magnet wire:






Remove the loop of wire and cut it between the two, relatively close together tape wraps. You should now have a 6 inch plus length of cable . You cannot emulate a Litz type 1 twist, but that should not present a problem. Tin the open ends of this cable. Use a liquid flux if you have one and cut it with 99.99% pure isopropyl alcohol from your local drug store until it resembles weak tea in color. This mixture will ablate the wire insulation and tin the wires very quickly. Dip it past the tape and when the brown goop stops rising, remove the wire and wipe it in a double folded cotton shop towel from just above the solder to the cable end. This will squeeze the excess solder and burnt insulation out, leaving an ugly spot on the rag.
Do this to both ends of the cable.

Here is my concoction of acid flux and methanol - all I had handy:



Taped and cut and ready for dipping:



There's the ugliness after burning off the coating and partially soldering the ends.  I re-dipped these again after some paste flux:




Twist the length of cable at least two full turns down it's length and try to keep it from untwisting (not easy). Now take an appropriate size of shrink tube and cut a 0.9 inch piece off, fold the cable in the middle and slip the tube over the two parts. Then solder the two dipped ends together and attach them to a short piece of tinned copper wire, either solid or stranded and go hook it up to your speaker ground lug. Make two of these of course.

Here is the before and after twist:





And a clear piece of shrink tubing prior to shrinking:




Bud

[TooManyToys]

Pete,

I think you're going to be reworking that shrink tubing.  As far as I understand it, it should be as this image from DIYAudio:

http://www.diyaudio.com/forums/parts/102180-groundside-electrons-22.html#post1753094

[BudP]

You can use the simple shrink tube. The multiple pieces do allow more finesse.

Wire looks fine. The ugly will go away when you get some liquid flux and 99.99% pure alcohol. You might try getting a sample amount from Kester.

Bud

[TooManyToys]

It looked from DIYAudio like it was trying to be kept in a loop, or at least the two lengths separated.

[Big Red Machine]

The instructions say to wrap it around both parts.  Essentially you have a loop.  And then they look like the retail part.

[Big Red Machine]

If you read a little further into that thread:

[*Scotty*]

Here is my DIY version for one channel. It consists of 12 twisted pairs of Belden Datatwist 1577A
formed into a 6in. loop and the stripped ends,all 48 of them stuffed into a spade-lug with a gas tight crimp. I have to make another one for the left channel and then do some serious listening.
 
 

 



 Preliminary impressions are that the right channel may render decay and the size of the acoustic space the sounds originate in a little better,no night and day stuff yet and zero brightness problems.
Scotty

[TooManyToys]

Pete, I still consider that second one a loop.  I did see that and that's why I wrote "or at least the two lengths separated.".   

The image later in the thread shows the shrink wrap skipped, but still insulating the conductors.  My main concern of your first pic with the shrink wrap was you were going to have both conductors shrunk together touching. 

[Big Red Machine]

Pete, I still consider that second one a loop.  I did see that and that's why I wrote "or at least the two lengths separated.".   

The image later in the thread shows the shrink wrap skipped, but still insulating the conductors.  My main concern of your first pic with the shrink wrap was you were going to have both conductors shrunk together touching.

So the question is whether an antenna loop is required or just a loop since the wires have dielectric.

[NickS]

So the question is whether an antenna loop is required or just a loop since the wires have dielectric.

The picture of an uncovered retail unit in the Six Moons review (toward the bottom of the page) seems to present a simple loop:   http://www.6moons.com/audioreviews/groundcontrol/groundcontrol.html

[Big Red Machine]

The picture of an uncovered retail unit in the Six Moons review (toward the bottom of the page) seems to present a simple loop:   http://www.6moons.com/audioreviews/groundcontrol/groundcontrol.html

Right, a collapsed loop.

[BudP]

For insulated wire you can collapse the loop. You can use one piece of extra insulation or three. The only other thing to be aware of here is that without a true Litz lay up you do have an antenna. The twist helps a bit but you may still get some RFI from the diy loops. However, to date no one has advised me of any problems with RFI reception.

[BudP]

Solder Pots need a bit of maintenance and care. The following may come in the Parts Express instructions or it may not.
1. Mount the pot on a ~.060 thick sheet of aluminum just to make it harder to tip over
2. Have some form of fume extraction, There is no reason to breathe lead fumes if you can avoid it. Not high concentration, but not beneficial.
3. Wear Levi's, nothing else will protect you from serious burns if you do upset your pot. Makes sense to have a heavy cotton apron with bib on for another layer of protection.
4. Sit on a narrow foot print round seat stool, with back, so that in case you do spill into your lap you can stand quickly and send the stool flying backwards out of your way. Make sure you have some clear space behind you to allow for this.
5. Have a separate 4 inch square of aluminum next to the pot and periodically use a steel spoon to skim the dross off of the pot.  Tap the hot dross onto the aluminum square to cool. Throw this away in an approved fashion.
6. Forget about ROHS compliance. "Silver Solder" (less than 4% silver by the way) eats the iron pot constantly, always has iron dross on the solder surface and NEVER looks like you have made a clean solder joint. Plus, the pot has to be about 130 deg F hotter just to make the stuff properly eutectic.
7. Never ever buy any kind of "bargain" solder. Purchase bar solder and know where it came from.
8. Purchase a temperature sensor attachment for your multimeter, just so you can monitor the pot temperature setting.

[WGH]

For my quick and dirty test I used 2 - 6" lengths of JSC Wire & Cable #6669, 12 conductor, 22 (7/30) AWG wire.



Bud's proof of concept test is 2 ft. of #16 AWG lamp cord, in a previous post Bud suggests using 88 turns of #36 AWG magnet wire which is close to the area of 16 guage. I split the difference and used 8 out of the 12 conductors which calculated out to 1 ft. of 16 AWG wire based on the American wire gauge chart (below). The bundled wires were soldered to a straight length of 18 AWG copper.



I will listen for a few weeks then remove the ground enhancers. Right now I may be hearing more low level info and depth but time will tell if my brain is playing tricks on me again.

[BudP]

WGH,

When next you make a loop, use a bit less dielectric material and probably something unshielded too. That's a lot of plastic you have there and it does turn out to be a combination of surface area and dielectric constant / dielectric absorption. You want some really low value plastics in these things.

Bud

[*Scotty*]

Hi, Bud, The Cat5e DIY enhancers appear to work in my system but I can't explain the weird break-in process. I do like what they do though. I guess I may bite on true litz version after the first of the year.
Scotty

[jimbop]

Bud - Do the number of twists in the bundle make a difference? I've made  number of these loops to experiment with, but I think I may be twisting them too tightly - usually quite a few twists to make the bundle as tight as possible. Perhaps I should try a looser bundle?

Jim D

[WGH]

For my version #2 I removed all the extra stuff. The wire is still 8 strands of 22 (7/30) AWG JSC Wire #6669.
Back to listening.









Wayne

[Wind Chaser]

Hi, Bud, The Cat5e DIY enhancers appear to work in my system but I can't explain the weird break-in process. I do like what they do though. I guess I may bite on true litz version after the first of the year.
Scotty

You might be able to get a used pair... some folks in the last few posts of the mind blowing thread don't seem too impressed.

[satfrat]

You might be able to get a used pair... some folks in the last few posts of the mind blowing thread don't seem too impressed.

If I were them, I'd be returning them for refund instead of selling them to someone looking for a deal, which afterall they already are. 
 
Cheers,
Robin