Wouldn't the following be better. Even if "only" aesthetically. And there may be electronic benefits, too. (See link near bottom for them.)
Think of a piece of thick rope made of three strands, all twisted together.
Why do they STAY together? (Not easily answered!... but we will use the same physics here.)
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To make four wires running from A to B play nicely together...
I'll call the wires "A", "B", "C", and "D".
Twist A and B together, set aside. Note which way you twisted them. As evenly as you can. (I.e. keep the wavelength constant.) Tight is good, but you don't have to make it "very" tight.
Twist B and C together. Twist the same way.
"Twist the other way"??? What is the "way" of a twist??
Which wire is going to the back, when we do the next twist. The yellow wire, in the above.
And in the previous illustration? The red wire is the one that is going to go to the back.
The yellow wire is the "bottom" wire, as we look at it. And the red wire is the "top" wire.
The red/black pair and the yellow/brown pair are NOT being twisted in the same "way".
If you look closely at the example of the finished "four in one" cables at the top of the page, you can see that both pairs were twisted the same way there.
The more closely you've matched the tightness of your twisting, the better your final result will be.
You now have A and B twisted together. Call them "the first pair".
And you have C and D twisted together. If I have to tell you what I'll call them... THINK!
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Now twist the first pair and the second pair together.
Duh. Not hard. BUT!!!! You need to know Two Secrets!...
a) When you twist the pairs together, to the twisting the Other Way.
b) (A fine point, but adds to the chance of a great result.) If, as you twist the pairs together, you can put a little EXTRA twist into the "A/B" twist and the "C/D" twist, then the bundle will twist into itself better. This is particularly helpful when each of the four wires is stranded. Do the "twist against the twist" of the elements being twisted together at both stages of the process.
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For long runs, the twisting can become a tedious... unless you use a drill which allows very slow speeds.
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Another fine point:
It is important that both wires participate in the twisting equally. In the example above you can see that all the twisting is being done by the black wire. They should both trace a spiral. Neither should be straighter, the way the red is in the above.
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Benefits of twists:
There was an erudite discussion at this discussion at electronics.stackexchange.com.
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