current-carrying noodles

As I await my order from Digi-Key for my turbopump power supply re-cap project, I decided to address the other known issue related to that subsystem of my vacuum chamber: The power supply to pump interface cable. Fortunately, included in the vacuum chamber lot were both cables for the power supply, which are rarely included if you buy a used pump or power supply. Both cables are proprietary, and thus are expensive if you could even find them.

Unfortunately, one of the cables did sustain some damage. There was a cut through some of the outer insulation, as well as the insulation and a few copper stands of some of the wires. It wasn't too bad, and the cut wires were unlikely to cause any shorts, though I couldn't help but to think it would be stupid to take any chances that could just maybe result in expensive pump damage.

The two ends of the cable. I already unthreaded and slid back the cannon plug backshell 

Outer gray insulation jacket already cut back. Nicks in individual wires visible. 

Since the damage was closest to the circular connector, that's the side I'd have to fix. I deal with this style of connector quite a bit at work, and before I removed the backshell, I was somewhat worried that the individual sockets in the connector housing would be crimped to the wires, thus requiring replacement. Not a big deal if it has a US military part number, but this thing was made in France.... It ended up being soldered, and once I knew better, I wished they actually were crimped.

I ended up having a few issues, partly because I'm currently so ill-equipped at home. No vise. No solder sucker/vac. Those would have come in handy. I tried wicking some of the solder from the cups using wire. It sort of worked, but not ideal. The wire gauge is pretty close to the limit of what the cups can accept, which make it more annoying to work with. Secondly, I didn't have much wire length to work with after cutting them down and stripping them because I wanted the backshell strain relief to clamp down on the outer insulation. Once I had a few wires soldered in place, it pre-loaded  the other wires making it somewhat of a pain to work with. The only saving grace is that I only had to deal with the sockets around the perimeter of the connector, as the inside ones are unused. I definitely wasn't ecstatic over the results, but they were acceptable.

Finally got it all soldered up. Wait a second.... When the hell did I remove the backshell? 

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I decided it would be easier to de/re-solder the connector on the other end so that I could slide the backshell on.

Alas! All done. The wires ring out good with low resistance, and no inter-wire shorts. Now if only I could remember what the hell I did with the little cap that goes on the backshell.