I have done this many times so I probably have a better feel for what the wires can take before breaking than others who haven't made a lot of cables. The idea is to twist them together just tight enough so they act like a single twisted wire and then you can feed them into the connector easier - they don't need to be any tighter. Seven wires equaling an aggregate 5.53 mm square is just smaller than about 18 awg per strand. Wires that size are more resilient than you might think, especially copper. Just go slow and easy and you shouldn't break the individual wires.