I bought 10 USB Type A Male connectors with covers for $ 0.92 ea at Moser Electronics last week. Today, I tried replacing the Type A Male connector on a Type A-B, Male-Male cable which I picked up at Fry's for $ 0.99. I have very little experience soldering electronic components. The most important factor was properly tinning 4 mm of the wire to solder to the connector. The tinning has to be smooth and very spareing. A small flat blade screw driver was used to gently push the wire into the slot. Use a very small pointed solder tip to prevent melting the plastic. Carefully melt the solder tinninnig.
I used the drawing found here as a guide
http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Image:USB_2.0_plug.pngTo pass a USB cable through the enclouser I plan to use for my camera, I cut the male plug off a 6 ft USB estenstion cable, fed it through the small opening and soldered a new connector. All three of my Web Cams work with the cable. Also, the USB extender with a 100 ft of cat 5e works fine.
I have 8 connectors if anyone needs a couple. If there is a source for the female version, I haven't found it.
Bob
