hello and a question on hookup wire

[rif]

I didn't see a 'hello' type board so I thought I'd start here.  I'm restarting my interest in diy -- hopefully I can finish the half started foreplay that's been in my closet for many years.

Why is solid core preferred to stranded hookup wire?  That's from the description of the power cord kit:

accidentally ordered several thousand feet of 20 gauge stranded wire instead of solid core wire for hookup wire in our kits

[Steve_in_NV]

All I can say from my experience is, it's tough to get stranded wire through the pin terminals on a tube socket even with tinning the wire, there is always a stray one to give you a bad day.

[Maxwell_E]

Also, if you don't tin each loose end before you put it through a terminal strip, you can get fly-away wires that will short against the adjacent terminals. And tinning every wire would take forever. Laziness wins the day.

[Doc B.]

Along with being easier to thread through terminals, solid core wire will stay where you put it when doing point to point wiring. And at least in my limited experience it sounds better.

[RayP]

What gauge do people use in various positions and what is the logic behind your decision?

Since the price of copper has risen dramatically in recent years, where do you buy your wire?

To answer my own questions -

I've been using solid 18 for most of my wiring because I bought some reels years ago from Mouser / Digikey when I didn't know any better and haven't run out yet. For B+ wiring, I use 600 volt rating but just 300 volt rating for the other wiring. PVC insulation because I can't afford teflon.

The exception is for signal wires where I use the wire from IBM type 1 cable. It's 22 gauge with a foam type insulation. There are two twisted pairs in the cable with different colours for each wire which is handy. Photo here.http://www.siemon.com/us/standards/Screened_and_Shielded_Guide_1_Overview_and_History.asp

I use it because it was available and because it was being thrown out, I got a large roll.

I know lots of other people successfully use cat 5 cable.

ray

[Grainger49]

To rif, welcome.

To Ray:  I have spools of 22 AWG that I use.  The current is in the mA range for everything but the transformer and power switch/fuse wiring.  Those only carry higher than milliamps for the turn on surge.

[coca]

I use cat. 5 for signal normally. The type with teflon insulation.

Bernie.

[corndog71]

I tried cat5 years ago and it seemed ok at first but after some time of getting used to them I switched back to Kimber and it was just obviously better to my ears.

[rif]

So I took a look to see what I used -- it looks like 20 gauge magnet wire. It must have come with the kit since I have a coil of it in my bag of foreplay parts.

Unfortunately a lot of the solder joints look pretty bad so I'm going to undo most of it and start again. Probably best since I don't know where I left off.

I also have an Anticipation upgrade kit, and printouts on pseudo dual mono PS, filament snubber, multiple outputs, and single series shunt stepped attenuator, phew!

[Paul Joppa]

So I took a look to see what I used -- it looks like 20 gauge magnet wire. It must have come with the kit since I have a coil of it in my bag of foreplay parts....

Wow - you must have the original long-crystal wire. That was special stuff - Bottlehead had to give it up, partly because it became expensive and/or hard to find, but also because the insulation is really hard to get through. Worth the effort, but it was also responsible for a lot of bad solder joints!

[Grainger49]

The best answer for using the magnet wire was to use a solder pot to burn the insulation off.  I would burn it all off and then put sleeves on what needs insulating.  The ground buss shouldn't need insulating.