Please assure me I'm not going to burn my house down.

Todd - As far as I understand even cables with the plenum jacket still have typical shielding around the inner conductors - that's the real problem.

toddverrone OP 102 posts                                                02-17-2017 10:04pm

I’m not dead yet.. ;-)

Wiliewonka - cat 5 plenum cable insulation is Teflon and is good to 200* C. Cat 5 is also rated to 300v. Not 600, but well above 120.

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Actually they make a shielded 600V insulation rated twisted 4 pair cable.
The insulation rating is not for the copper conductors of the twisted pair cable. It’s so the cable can be installed in the same cable assembly or raceway, like a Cable Tray, with other conductors. Or in an MCC, (Motor Control Center) cabinet with power cables. NEC code says the cables shall have an insulation voltage rating not less than the highest voltage of other wires or cables in the same raceway, cabinet, or cable assembly.

Benefits of Using Belden DataTuff Category 5e 600V AWM-Rated CablesBelden provides two Industrial Ethernet Category 5e cables designed specifically for superior electrical performance and outstanding noise immunity. The Belden DataTuff 4-pair shielded cables carry a 600V AWM rating which makes them approved for use in listed MCCs and switch gear, and they feature Belden’s patented Bonded-Pair technology. While these cables have the design and certifica-tions that make them ideal for MCC and switch gear applications, they can also be used for more tradi-tional Ethernet applications. They are not, however, intended for 600V power delivery.

https://www.belden.com/docs/upload/NP314.pdf

NOTE: They ARE NOT, however, intended for 600V power delivery.

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A twisted 4 pair cable is not designed/manufactured to be used as a mains power cord. It can be used for low current power application. Example would be POE (Power Over Ethernet) LED lighting. There are other power limited examples.
You can parallel all the conductors together as you want but it still does not increase the maximum allowable current rating of the twisted pair cable per UL or NEC.

As far as I know the outer jacket of the cable sole purpose is to hold the lay/geometry of 4 pairs in place. Yes it can be PVC or plenum rated for where it can be used to meet NEC code. Changing the lay/geometry of the 4 pairs will change the design characteristics of the cable. The cable is made in non shielded and shielded.

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I decided to make a PC out of cat 5 plenum cable. I kept it in its blue sleeve (containing 4 twisted pairs) and then I braided 3 lengths together for each conductor. I then took those three braids and braided them. What I have sounds incredible and I’m fairly confident that it is safe electrically.

If you are hell bent on using cat 5e for a power cord I would suggest you use some type of recognized insulating sleeve material to cover the paralleled groups of the hot and neutral conductors prior to braiding them together. Teflon has zero physical abuse properties. I know of no UL Listed aftermarket power cord that uses Teflon for the outer insulation covering the current carrying line conductors.
When bent too sharply it stretches the outer side of the bend making it even thinner than it already is. With an approved outer insulating sleeve material the entire length of the cable you will insure there is no chance of a HOT line to neutral or Hot Line to equipment ground short or worse arcing. Arcing is the main cause of electrical fires.

It’s not the connected load of the piece of audio equipment you should be worried about. It’s the available short circuit/ground fault power your branch circuit and electrical panel can deliver.
And just because you paralleled a bunch of insulated 24 gauge copper wires together does nothing for just a few that might fault, for what ever reason, from hot to neutral, or hot to equipment ground. Only those few are at play in the faulted circuit.

Safety electrical standards and codes are written for the what if happens.

The actual insulation around the wire itself is Teflon... I think the blue outer sleeve is PVC.

@jea48 that was a beautiful post. Points taken. I have the twisted pairs still in the blue outer sleeve and all 4 twisted pairs are used in parallel, I’m not running hot and neutral or ground in the same blue outer sleeve. The three lengths of cat5 for ground are all still in their outer sleeve, then braided. Likewise for live and neutral. It’s rather rugged. There’s  no chance they’ll short.. The only thing I could see happen would be if it was flexed a lot and very acutely. Then, if a few wires broke, the remaining wires on that pole could get hot and cause problems. 

That said, this was just meant to be an experiment to see what I think about multiple solid gauge conductors, separately insulated and braided together to form larger conductors. I’ll probably do something similar out of 20 or 18 gauge 600v wire. Any recommendations? OCC or the like would be nice.

Todd - I buy the Mil-Spec wire form my power cables from Take Five Audio...

https://www.takefiveaudio.com/categories/100-deep-cryo-treated-cablewire

Email Take Five to ensure the insulation is up to code

Here's the design for my power cables...
http://image99.net/blog/files/be8de0c383c5434907610d6b55049e69-75.html

Regards - Steve

@williewonka I've already got two of your helix design power cords hooked up to my monoblocks. I ended up using the yarbo 9000 series cable from vt4c as the donor cable for the main conductor. They sound great.