mclinnguy,
For me the exercise is to end up with some really nice cables, but also the assembly process, and ultimately to learn from the experience. The cable I'm starting out with is all highly reputable: Furutech, Neotech, Acoustic Revive, SAEC, Oyaide, RAMM, DHLabs, etc....from reputable US sources, but some purchased and shipped from Japan buy an Expat friend.
Copper is OCC, PCOCC, DUCC, Triple-C, Furutech nano, Oyaide 102 SSC; some silver plated, but mostly copper.
The same with connectors: RAMM, Oyaide, Furutech, IeGO, SonarQuest, Viborg. It should be fun, and maybe next year I can share some findings.