wire gauge

[Tomas N]

What gauge is the wire on a foil blade. Is the "plastic" coated wire considerably worse than the cloth coated?

[attila]

Hi
I have had wires that ranged from 22-28 gauge.Why do you ask? Isit because you want to make your own wires? Cloth or plastic coat- doesn't matter. The glue you use is more critical. I use super glue. Take a sample wire to radio shack and they will hook you up. Cheap too!

------------------
"Kill the men, save the women, and by the gods, do not spill the wine"

[neevel]

Typically 27-30 gauge-- Prieur wires are 28, I believe. Lots of people who make their own wires use 30-ga, kynar-insulated wire-wrap wire; it's not as strong as others, but it's adequate to the task, cheap and readily available (Radio Shack). I prefer cloth wire when I've got a choice, since I think the ability of the glue to wick into the insulation helps hold it in better. I found a bunch of big spools of 27 and 30 gauge cloth wire at a surplus store, which should last me a very long time.

-Dave

[edew]

I used to make my own wires with the kynar wires. They tend to break too easily, so I don't do that anymore.

[space_cadet]

How do you make your own foil wires? I don't see how you attach the wire to the cap's contact.

------------------
Cadet à Space

[Tomas N]

You just have to pop the metal disk out of the plastic cup and then solder the wire through the hole at the bottom of the disk. Then just thread the wire back through the hole at the bottom of the cup and pop the disk back in.

Following up on my previous question, I went to radio shack and got their kynar insulated "wrapping wire." It's 30 gauge, and I remember from when I used to do quite a bit of armoring that it wasn't optimal. It breaks easily and the insulation is likely to wear away, grounding the blade. At least that's my memory. Home Depot and another home center/hardware store had nothing thin enough. If anyone knows somewhere online to order a big spool of 28 gauge, cloth insulated wire (I'm not paying $2.50 for a wire that costs less than 2 cents) I'd appreciate it if you posted it.

[Moniteur]

I've recently been playing around with making my own foil wires again, with that kynar wire, for lack of anything better. I've found you can alleviate much frustration by drilling through the contact with a bit just a bit a little smaller than the 30 guage wire with the insulation on... strip your wire about an inch down.. this will let the contact slide down the wire. dip the wire in flux, put the contact on and tip it upwards to let it slide down so it buts up against the insulation.. then heat with the soldering gun, and the usual big glob of solder that is still on the end of the contact will melt and run down into the hole and solder the it together. You'll end up with a much cleaner soldering job than the factory wires. I'm going to call a couple of ham radio supply places in town, and see if they have any cloth wire. that kynar stuff really isn't all that great. far more insulation than wire..

[neevel]

You don't even need to solder the metal contact on to the new wire-- just slide the end of the wire through the cup, strip off about a centimeter or so, then spool the bare wire around the end of a small screwdriver and press it into the cup with a point setter. This may actually end up being more reliable, since it eliminates one of the common points of failure in the wire (the solder joint with the contact disk). With a little practice and a pair of tweezers, you can form it into a conical spool that'll fit snugly with the spring.

When I go the route of using the disk, I'll use an electronics-type soldering iron to melt the old solder and pull out the last bit of wire with fine pliers or tweezers. If that doesn't work, then the smallest size Dremel cutting/engraving bit can drill it out. I use a 28-gauge solder (the sort used for surface mount components), which aviods getting globs of solder on the contact. BTW, for this type of work leaded solder is much better than lead-free.

-Dave