# DIY Internal Cable Router



## Mr Pig (Jun 25, 2008)

Just made a DIY internal cable router and I thought I'd show you what I did.

As you probably know, Park make a nice kit for routing cables through frames but it costs about £50. Hard to justify unless you work in a busy shop so here's how to make one very cheaply. You will need:

Two shifter cables (I used old ones)
Super-glue
Heat-shrink









5mm diameter Neodymium magnets (Got them off eBay for a couple of pounds)


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## Mr Pig (Jun 25, 2008)

Start off by gluing a magnet to the end of the two gear cables.









If the end of the cable has any burrs, use a hobby knife to scrape it flat. A tiny drop of super-glue is all you need.

Next, cover the sides of the magnet and cable end with super-glue and quickly shrink a piece of heat-shrink over them. Once dry, trim back the rubber to the face of the magnet. Do this with both cable ends, making sure the two magnets are the right way around!


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## Mr Pig (Jun 25, 2008)

You've just made a cheap copy of the business end of the Park cable router.

Just like the Park one, you feed one cable into one end of your tube.









The other cable into the other end









And the two magnets will find each other allowing you to pull the join through









Leaving you a cable with which to pull your hydraulic line or gear or dropper housing through the frame.


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## Mr Pig (Jun 25, 2008)

Obviously you need to attach the other end of the cable to the hose/outer you want to pull through the frame. You can simply tape it on but I'm going to make fittings for holding the hose/cable on. When I do that I'll post that too and I'll try to find simple household parts that are cheap and widely available. My first thought is the lid off a felt pen.

Hope it proves useful :0)


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## Mike87 (Apr 8, 2010)

I like your ingenuity!


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## cmg (Mar 13, 2012)

Good work


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## the-one1 (Aug 2, 2008)

Pigs ARE smart. Kudos for the ingenuity


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## petercarm (Nov 5, 2007)

Is that a brand new Meta?


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## Mr Pig (Jun 25, 2008)

petercarm said:


> Is that a brand new Meta?


That's right :0) The Formula brakes are coming off so I needed a way to get the rear hose through. There are lots of ways you could achieve the same thing. You could glue on the magnet then cover it and the cable end in epoxy. Once set file or cut off the epoxy back to the face of the magnet.

There is very little strain on the joint. You only use it to pull the cable through.


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## owensjs (May 21, 2009)

Great idea! I'm gonna have to give this a try for sure. What methods are you using to attach the cable to brake hose, in particular, to pull it through?


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## Mr Pig (Jun 25, 2008)

owensjs said:


> What methods are you using to attach the cable to brake hose, in particular, to pull it through?


I haven't done that yet, sorry. I do have a few idea. You could simply tape the cable on, not very elegant but it would do the job. Once I've tried a few things I'll post them up.


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## petercarm (Nov 5, 2007)

Reverbs come with one of these:

https://images.getprice.com.au/uploadimg/1850/250_173289084.jpg


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## Mr Pig (Jun 25, 2008)

petercarm said:


> Reverbs come with one of these:











What is that?


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## petercarm (Nov 5, 2007)

You thread it into the end of the pilot hose and the real hose to pull it through.


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## Mr Pig (Jun 25, 2008)

petercarm said:


> You thread it into the end of the pilot hose and the real hose to pull it through.


So what you want is something like that but one that takes a thin cable at one end.


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## bing! (Jul 8, 2010)

for attaching cables, a couple of pinch collars should do. TowerHobbies.com | Dubro Dura-Collars 5/32" (4)

all i can think off for housing and cables is a copper tube fitting and hot glue to retain the hose. there must be a better way. great stuff and good luck!


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## nov0798 (Nov 27, 2005)

You need a pulling grip, but in the right size. 

http://www.grainger.com/product/KLEIN-TOOLS-Pulling-Grip-15X676?s_pp=false&picUrl=//static.grainger.com/rp/s/is/image/Grainger/15X676_AS01?$smthumb$


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## owensjs (May 21, 2009)

A decent enough solution to pull housing through would be to slip a shifter cable through a 4 or 5mm housing ferrule so that the ball of the cable is inside the ferrule. Slip the housing into the ferrule and pull it through the frame. The internal cable kit from Park uses a similar thing, but it appears to be rubber to conform to different housing/hose sizes.


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## Mr Pig (Jun 25, 2008)

bing! said:


> for attaching cables, a couple of pinch collars should do.


You only need to pull outers/hydro lines though though.



nov0798 said:


> You need a pulling grip, but in the right size.


Doesn't exactly look like a budget solution?



owensjs said:


> Slip the housing into the ferrule and pull it through the frame.


What holds the housing in the ferrule? Most are not a tight fit and, with a cable end in there, would only slide onto the outer a few millimetres. Something like that but longer and a tighter fit would be ideal. I haven't come up with anything yet.


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## noapathy (Jun 24, 2008)

Nice and clean - thanks for sharing this!


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## wschruba (Apr 13, 2012)

There are several different material ferrules, but they are split between un-crimped and pre-crimped. Your typical plastic derailleur ferrule is pre-crimped, so it grabs onto the housing when you insert it (think less like a crimp in metal, and more like close tolerances). Doesn't do too much to help with anything other than 4mm housing though. You can buy pre-crimped metal ferrules, fwiw--but it's a marginal solution, at least for running housing, in my opinion.

My favorite method of running housing is using a rare-earth magnet, running a piece of galvanized cable through (your tool would also work for this, as you'll see), and then threading the housing onto the cable, pusing it through the system, until I can grab the other end wherever it comes out. The cable gets pulled out, and whatever cable is getting used gets installed.

Hydraulic hose may and may not work with that method, but I usually just tape them on the cable, anyway.

If you were hell bent on not using tape, you could get a longish spring in 4mm OD. You would use it in the same way as the pulling grip above, except it would take longer to get your housing/hose into it. Not that big a deal for someone who isn't being crunched for time. I would heartily recommend that whatever you choose, you push the housing through using the cable as a guide, not pull it with the cable...there's a much smaller chance of losing the connection that way.


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## Mr Pig (Jun 25, 2008)

I swapped the brakes tonight and fed the rear hose through by simply taping the hose to the cable. It got the job done but it's not ideal as the end of the hose snags up on things. Where the hose makes a tight bend to exit the hole in the side of the chain-stay I had to fish it out with a pick. Also snagged at the head-tube too. 

Whatever long-term solution you use it is better if it holds the hose/outer in line with the guide-cable far more likely to go through the frame smoothly.


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