Suggestions for my first attempt at DIY cables

[gourav]

Hello friends. Recently when I bought my home theater, I connected them using 2.5 sq. mm. Finolex cables. Since 2 core was not available nearby, I bought single core and just joined them using cello tape. Since then, they've been lying around like that.

I now want to make them look like speaker cables. I watched some YouTube videos and understood that I could do that using the following:

1. Cable sleeve for covering the cable
2. Shrink tube to seal the ends
3. Banana plugs for connectors

My AVR and speakers both support banana plugs for FL & FR. So I'm looking to make 2 sets of cables. I am not looking to spend too much money right now, so I want to make do with cheap, but decent quality products. Accordingly, I shortlisted the following components from Amazon:
Cable sleeve: https://www.amazon.in/gp/product/B08PKWB8L1
Shrink tube: https://www.amazon.in/gp/product/B07P1DJG11
Banana plug: https://www.amazon.in/gp/product/B08T75MSQ6

I have three questions:

1. Are these components recommended? If not, what alternatives would you recommend. Not looking to spend more than 1.5-2k in total.
2. Are there any websites other than Amazon I should be looking at? I found a few sleeves and tubes on Robu.in which are cheaper. Will they be good?
3. What size sleeve should I buy to fit a pair of 2.5 sq. mm. Finolex wires? I have shortlisted 4 mm sleeve, but I have no idea if they'll be the right size for my cable.

 

[gourav]

Since I did not get any responses here, I wanted to leave this response so that anyone who stumbles upon this post future with similar question has something to go on.

I ordered 6mm sleeves which worked fine for my pair of 2.5 sq. mm. cables. But this was probably the minimum which would have fit. If you have 2 core 2.5 sq. mm. cable, with additional covering layer, then order one size higher.

Since both my cables were the same colour, I needed some way of marking the ends to match red with red on both ends. So I got 5 mm. shrink tube to fit on single cable. This worked, but I'd say 4 mm. will also work for single cable. For sealing the ends, I got 10 mm shrink tube. This was too big. 8 mm will easily work for this.

The binding ports at the back of the AVR might not directly accept banana plugs. Make sure your's does before you buy. My AVR's binding ports are closed with plastic pugs, which I was not able to remove. So after taking all the effort, I had to just put them back the way they were earlier. Though, my cables look a lot cleaner and more professional now, earlier they were held together with cello tape which attracts lot of dust.

I'm leaving a link to the tubes and sleeve I bought. They were of satisfactory quality.
Banana Plugs: https://www.amazon.in/gp/product/B08T75MSQ6
Cable sleeve: https://robu.in/product/nylon-6mm-expandable-braided-sleeve-for-wire-protection-2m-length/ (These were much shorter than 2m. My cables were 1.8 meters and didn't cover them fully.)
5 mm shrink tube: https://robu.in/product/heat-shrink-sleeve-5mm-red-2meter-industrial-grade-woer-hst/
10 mm shrink tube: https://robu.in/product/heat-shrink-sleeve-10mm-black-1metre-industrial-grade-woer/

The banana plugs were a bit loose. After putting the wire in and pushing it all the way in, I was still able to pull the wire out from the back. Had to put in a lot of effort to make sure then did not come out like that. Since I have not seen or used any other banana plugs, I don't know if this is normal or not.