How to Wire a Screened UK Mains Cable
Please take extra care when wiring the screen to the earth and follow the instructions carefully. Find all the links to everything mentioned below.
Listed Products
Viborg UK01S UK Mains Connector Pure Copper, Silver-plated
Neotech NEP-3003G: Graphene G-UPOCC Copper Mains Cable
Self-Adjusting Wire Ferrule Crimp Tool
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AI generated video transcript
Hi guys, Nick from HiFi Collective here. Just doing a quick video, wiring up a mains plug. So this customer wants to have it screened. So the screened bit in here is wired to the earth. Now you have to be very careful when you're doing this because you do not want the screen touching the live or the neutral because that's not great. So we're using the Viborg UK01S UK mains connector, pure copper and silver-plated. Now these are brilliant, I mean they're £36 a piece. They're so chunky and durable and you can get quite fat wires down there. I mean it's got a clamp there as well. So you can get some pretty fat wires down there. So we're combining the mains plug here with the Neotech NEP-3003G graphene mains cable. Now you can see here there's a directionality to this cable.
The arrow is pointing that way. So this end you'd have the mains plug and this end you'd have the IEC connector there. So you need to be very, very careful. I can't stress how careful you have to be doing this wiring. Usually you would screen—you can see the screen down there. I'm going to open it up in a minute. You can see the screen. So you will expose the screen at the mains plug end, but at the other end you will cut that back because you do not want the screen going all the way through. You just need to cut it back and isolate it at that end. So what do you need for the job? Several things: a pair of scissors, because there is cotton in there that you need to snip away.
Got some cable end sleeve, what the couplers there, wire strippers, black tape, kind of really cool sharp cutters. Stanley we're going to be using a combination of the 3.2 or is that, that's a 2.4 and that's a 3.2 heat shrink because you need to obviously isolate the actual screen bit there covering that. And then we have this one which is the 12.7 black heat shrink. Is that 12.7? Brilliant. I don't know why that's there, you don't need that. And then you need a Phillips screwdriver. Make sure the Phillips fits. When you buy this you get one of these with it. So all the connections for internally are using an Allen key. So, oh also a ruler. Okay great. So let's get building. Okay I'm going to take the plug apart. So this top bit unscrews like that.
Take these, it's a Phillips screwdriver. Make sure you've got a good fitting screwdriver to the actual screw. They come all the way out, pulls out. There you go, there's the gubbins inside. You can see the arrangement here. You've got your earth, you've got your neutral and you've got your live. One thing to note is the depth of the actual gubbins inside. So they go in about that deep. So you want kind of that much wire exposed. I'm going to use the cable end sleeves in this case. It's going to unscrew them ready for fitting everything in a minute. The great thing about these plugs is the grub screws and the thread are pretty strong. So you can really tighten them up, which is what you want.
I actually kind of prefer using cable end sleeves rather than soldering kind of multi-strand cable because it creates a solid mass. But with cable end sleeves actually you get more contact I feel than with the grub screw driving down onto the cable end sleeve. So right, you need to figure out how much, why you need to cut off. So also remember the arrow. So electricity flows that way. So this end is the mains cable. So it goes in about there. So you want about, I'm going to go three and a half. Yeah. So I'm going to go three and a half centimeters, take off the sleeve. So I'm using a Stanley knife. So the braid section of this is quite thick. So don't worry if you push a bit too hard. So like that.
And then just give it a turn as you go. Try and get it perfect. A circle, which I haven't really done. It's quite hard to do. You could use tape. So it's all going to be inside. It's not visible. There's no biggie. So I like to bend it like that and then kind of slowly push down. So you expose a bit like that and then you just work your way around like so. It's quite thick, the sleeping on these, this cable again. Right. So that's all done. You won't be able to slide it off because it's so tight. So I like to just do score a line, open it up and it should peel back like so. And off it comes.
So you can see, so with this cable you have the green, which is obviously the red, which is live and the black, which is neutral. So I want all the kind of exposed braid to be the other side. So I'm going opposite to where the green is to open it up. So I'm going to use just a flathead screwdriver and just tweeze it out. Try not to destroy the, I mean some bits will fall off for sure. With the foil it's very delicate and you won't be able to keep that one kind of section. So I'll just cut that off anyway. It's very thin. The idea is when you're pulling it back you don't have too many strands because it would just rip and we just do it.
You want it close to the green, so I'm just going to bring it around like that. Just make sure you grabbed it all to keep it all together. You want it to be the same length as the green conductor. Oh yeah, you also need the heat gun for this job. About there. Snip it off and you just got to get rid of all the other stuff like that. Snip away. Try not to snip the screen bits. There you go, that's kind of already like that. So remember I was talking about how deep you want the, so that's kind of the correct height that you want. So this one is the WBT 0435 whereas the other one the 0434 which you're going to use for the red and the black is slightly longer.
So you'll trim that down when it comes to it. Okay, so using the green, this is the 2.4, go over the top, get it all the way, snip it. You can see the end of it so I want it to be about there. Using enough, get the gun on it. We're using the 3.2 over the top of that. Got it? Do anything else? I'm going to get some black tape, give it a wrap. It's best to use scissors. I can't have a loose phrase but there isn't really any. Just to keep it neat. Let's wrap it round. And then, what did you say that's the 12.7? So you're going to take two centimetres of the 12.7 over the top. Quite tight fit but it's fine. Not that much. Okay, so now we're going to expose a bit of conductors.
We've got the greens. When you're wrapping them two wires together it's nice but it's just to flay it out a bit. So then it kind of merges a bit better. And then you're going to have to capture every single strand. So over the top and then you twist it on, you twist it on the way of the flow. Just like that. Cool. And then these which are awesome. These coupler. We sell these. You can see how it works like a trapdoor. So over the top. Brilliant. So with the other two conductors, similar amount, twist. These are definitely a bit tighter so it's the same way with the twist of the actual wire. There you go. So they're all good. So I'm going to trim these down. About there. A bit more. So I can see the bits of wire there.
So that's what I want to see. Ding. Right, there we go. Let's do another little. Brilliant. So these are all ready to wire up. So you need to remove this. This makes it easier to use. So these Viborg plugs are so popular. We have sold so many of them. The great thing about them is, because the wire comes in from that angle, you're not messing about with wires coming underneath into the plug. They just go straight in. Awesome. You don't need to thread it through because there's nothing there. You can just do it in a minute. All right, let's wire it up. Where are the other bits? So, the earth. The problem is it's kind of the wrong way around, but if it was the other way around that'd be better.
So you kind of do a bit of a twisty twisty. So it's a bit like that. So live there. Let's just get it tightened. Earth first. You see that? So don't do overly tight at the moment. Just get it in place. The black one, which is the neutral, goes the one that's marked N. And this one which will take a bit of manipulation. If you apply it really. Tighten it up quite tightly now. They're all good. All strong in. Very tight in. Great. So that plug's ready to have the mounting put on. So that goes over the top like so. There are screws. The screw holes make sure they're the, I think it already fit one way around actually. Which is that way. I'm gonna put the screws in now. Let me just show you this guys.
So that's how it all goes together. See that? Back on. Then we do the screws up. Don't tighten up properly yet. Just get them reasonably tight. The other great thing about these plugs is it's really solid. So when you're screwing in it's a thick bit of plastic you're screwing into. Okay so we're gonna put which one did I put on that one? Right so this is the bit that goes over. You see this is the bit that goes over the top like that. But you can give it the squeeze. I'm gonna use that one. So it goes that way yeah because that's held in place. That goes over the top and then you put the screws in from the other side though. Obviously. Is that cool? Yep. So again don't do it tight on one side.
Get it even so that it looks even. Slowly tighten it a bit each side. Held firmly in place. And then cover goes over the top. Sorry can I just show you that how I've done that. So let's just get it even more even. So the exposed screw part is similar. Show the evenness of it all. There. Okay it's held firmly in place. There's no way there's going to be any kind of pulling of wires within that because it's clamped there. It's a bit everywhere. This over the top got a nice little rubber thing going on. The best thing to do is to get that fitted the rubber bit inside. See that? So it's kind of covered and you don't have to mess about trying to push it back in. Pop that on and screw it up. There you go. Done.
That's great. Continuity. Well you could test it with your meter but you're going to wire that end anyway. I'm not doing that today. I just wanted to show you how to connect the earth. Especially the earth with the actual screen. I'll get the meter on it anyway. Okay I know that these are both red. One should be black but it's okay for that. So I've got it on DCR. That's fine. And I'm going to do the earth. The green one there. So that should come up zero. Yep and you could just tweak a bit of the braid and that's zero as well. Just checking it's not touching anything else. That's good. And then you've got the live which is the red wire. All good. But then it shouldn't be connected to any other bits and it isn't.
And then you've got the neutral, which is that one. The neutral is the black, and that's showing continuity. It should not be connected to the green, the red or the braid—which it isn't. So, job's a good'un. If you're looking for a mains plug, look no further than the Viborg. The code is UK01S, which is pure copper conductor, silver-plated. There is a rhodium version and I think there's a blank, unplated version. Cool. There you go. Don't plug it in yet, though, because there's nothing at the other end. That'll be dangerous. Bye. Just before I sign off, I want to say a big thank you for watching our videos. Like and subscribe and follow us on all the social network platforms. See you later.