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DIY Stompboxes => Building your own stompbox => Topic started by: soupbone on January 03, 2012, 07:09:20 AM

Title: 22 or 24 gauge wire?
Post by: soupbone on January 03, 2012, 07:09:20 AM
There's been a little debate over what size of wire to use for wiring up circuits...22 or 24 gauge wire.Which one is better?I would think 24 would be better because of thicker insulation.I have been known to be wrong many times though. :icon_mrgreen:
Title: Re: 22 or 24 gauge wire?
Post by: DavenPaget on January 03, 2012, 07:53:54 AM
Quote from: soupbone on January 03, 2012, 07:09:20 AM
There's been a little debate over what size of wire to use for wiring up circuits...22 or 24 gauge wire.Which one is better?I would think 24 would be better because of thicker insulation.I have been known to be wrong many times though. :icon_mrgreen:
I've used 22 and 24 all the time and they have the same amount of insulation , if they are rated for 300v that is .
22 is nice if you can get some  :icon_mrgreen:
Title: Re: 22 or 24 gauge wire?
Post by: alparent on January 03, 2012, 08:09:50 AM
Which ever one you can get for free is the one I would use.
Title: Re: 22 or 24 gauge wire?
Post by: John Lyons on January 03, 2012, 10:16:32 AM
The insulation should be the same thickness on either given the same maufacture.
The wire gauge is the only thing that would be different.
I usually go with #22 but I use 7 strand wire instead of 19 (or whatever standard wire is) so it's a bit stiffer
and easier to route into smaller holes, board and DC jack etc.
Title: Re: 22 or 24 gauge wire?
Post by: R.G. on January 03, 2012, 10:20:31 AM
Insulation thickness is measure in volts, not inches. To a first approximation, no wire has thin enough insulation to matter for effects use. And since the currents are so small in effects, there is no reason to pick 22 over 24 on current carrying capacity. Use what you got, buy whichever is handy or suits your sense of esthetics.
Title: Re: 22 or 24 gauge wire?
Post by: DavenPaget on January 03, 2012, 10:54:28 AM
Quote from: R.G. on January 03, 2012, 10:20:31 AM
Insulation thickness is measure in volts, not inches. To a first approximation, no wire has thin enough insulation to matter for effects use. And since the currents are so small in effects, there is no reason to pick 22 over 24 on current carrying capacity. Use what you got, buy whichever is handy or suits your sense of esthetics.
+1 on that , anyway , i bought a massive reel from RS ( RS components ) . so yeah , i pretinned stranded is actually written as pretinned solid anyway ... i bought 22AWG of that for SGD$17 per colour for 100m .
Title: Re: 22 or 24 gauge wire?
Post by: Mark Hammer on January 03, 2012, 11:03:22 AM
I love the #24 pre-bonded wire from Small Bear.  Strong enough to do the job, and it turns corners really well, which, for a guy like me who doesn't use PC-mounted pots, switches or jacks (even though I should) is a huge virtue.  Moreover, when stripped, it fits through the same holes as my resistor leads without splaying.
Title: Re: 22 or 24 gauge wire?
Post by: soupbone on January 03, 2012, 11:52:26 AM
Cool.Thanks folks!I do like the pre-tinned wire.Good stuff :icon_biggrin:
Title: Re: 22 or 24 gauge wire?
Post by: garcho on January 03, 2012, 01:08:31 PM
Quotefor a guy like me who doesn't use PC-mounted pots, switches or jacks (even though I should) is a huge virtue.

Mark Hammer, you just made my day; I thought I was the only one who still does this.
Title: Re: 22 or 24 gauge wire?
Post by: scratch on January 03, 2012, 01:21:40 PM
since i  rack mount my gadgets, pretty much find it easier to use non-PC mount switches, pots jacks ... and I use an external power supply, so once the cover goes on I never have to go back in. So more often than not I use 'telephone' wire, breakage is not an issue for me ...
Title: Re: 22 or 24 gauge wire?
Post by: DavenPaget on January 03, 2012, 03:43:40 PM
I used to use those side cutters to cut wires to the point that i can cut ANY solid core wire and not nip the core .
I just found a RJ45 and RJ11 crimper in my dad's toolbox and now it's a godsend , it has a perfect wire cutter below it , but i am buying a proper wire stripper soon .
Now i can cut through AWG10 EASILY !
This crimper :
(http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3268/3527681575_f14f119716.jpg)
except mine doesn't have that black bar in between the grips .
Title: Re: 22 or 24 gauge wire?
Post by: LucifersTrip on January 03, 2012, 03:50:40 PM
Quote from: soupbone on January 03, 2012, 07:09:20 AM
There's been a little debate over what size of wire to use for wiring up circuits...22 or 24 gauge wire.Which one is better?I would think 24 would be better because of thicker insulation.I have been known to be wrong many times though. :icon_mrgreen:

just a quick note...the smaller the gauge, the larger the diameter:
(http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/2/23/Wire_gauge_%28PSF%29.png/220px-Wire_gauge_%28PSF%29.png)
Title: Re: 22 or 24 gauge wire?
Post by: roswell on April 22, 2015, 01:11:00 PM
Quote from: Mark Hammer on January 03, 2012, 11:03:22 AM
I love the #24 pre-bonded wire from Small Bear.  Strong enough to do the job, and it turns corners really well, which, for a guy like me who doesn't use PC-mounted pots, switches or jacks (even though I should) is a huge virtue.  Moreover, when stripped, it fits through the same holes as my resistor leads without splaying.

Thanks Mark. This is what I'll buy.
Title: Re: 22 or 24 gauge wire?
Post by: Cozybuilder on April 22, 2015, 01:38:14 PM
I use 26 gauge teflon insulated solid core.
Title: Re: 22 or 24 gauge wire?
Post by: GibsonGM on April 22, 2015, 01:46:22 PM
18,22,24,26.  Same to me (unless you need the voltage rating...for low volt stompbox).    Stranded vs. solid is more debatable, IMHO....try 'em all!
Title: Re: 22 or 24 gauge wire?
Post by: Beo on April 22, 2015, 11:46:41 PM
Quote from: soupbone on January 03, 2012, 07:09:20 AM
There's been a little debate over what size of wire to use for wiring up circuits...22 or 24 gauge wire.Which one is better?I would think 24 would be better because of thicker insulation.I have been known to be wrong many times though. :icon_mrgreen:

I always have to pipe in on wire threads... I love teflon wire with PTS wire strippers. Usually can get the stripper for a good price on ebay (well, that sounds awkward... don't tell my wife). Great wire and the insulation never shrinks. Best buy is the wire from Apex Jr. They have the stubby small bat switches too.

http://www.apexjr.com/wire.html

http://www.apexjr.com/Switches.htm

http://patcoinc.net/index.html

Title: Re: 22 or 24 gauge wire?
Post by: Rhop on April 23, 2015, 01:37:00 AM
With me it's either SB's pre-tinned 24AWG or the wire from some 16-way ribbon cable I got. I think it's 26AWG.

-Ryan
Title: Re: 22 or 24 gauge wire?
Post by: Quackzed on April 23, 2015, 10:28:18 AM
i tend to mod/remod tinker and change things too much to use solid core, it breaks after being bent and re-bent during the adjusting phase... though for a set in stone type build that you're not gonna mess with too much it can make for a very neat and clean build with 90 degree wire bends and that sort of thing, i just tinker alot, and stranded wire just takes the abuse better...

Title: Re: 22 or 24 gauge wire?
Post by: amptramp on April 23, 2015, 11:31:37 AM
Solid wire forever!

(http://www.sparkbench.com/homebrew/Hatry/hatryrear.jpg)

This is a Hatry & Young superheterodyne radio from 1929.  No insulation required.  Front picture here:

(http://www.sparkbench.com/homebrew/Hatry/front.jpg)

I have a Freshman Masterpiece radio that can beat that - it not only has solid bare wire, but the wire is rectangular cross-section!  The only time I have ever seen rectangular wire used in modern times was on the Hermes spacecraft where it was used for jumpers when minor circuit changes were made that did not warrant new board artwork.  The wire was small enough to cover one flatpack pin without bridging to adjacent pins.
Title: Re: 22 or 24 gauge wire?
Post by: davent on April 23, 2015, 12:42:54 PM
That's a thing of beauty, a true breadboard build?
Title: Re: 22 or 24 gauge wire?
Post by: PRR on April 23, 2015, 01:12:11 PM
> a true breadboard build?

Yes. All plastic-stuff is fake.

> The only time I have ever seen rectangular wire used in modern times was on the Hermes spacecraft

JBL (not JPL!) and probably others mill round wire to a rectangular shape for loudspeaker voice-coils, to get more Cu/Al in the costly magnetic gap space.

Large power transformers are wound with ribbon to get more copper onto the iron core.

The one-turn secondary of a spot-welder is usually a flat strip (or stripS to improve flexibility).

Bus-bars are often rectangular for easier tappings and improved heat dissipation. In power stations they may use *hollow* rectangular tubing. Short HIGH-current busbars are often designed for very-high current density (to save cost) and heat dissipation becomes the main limit, hence flat and hollow instead of round and compact. Maximum surface area per dollar of Aluminum.

The buses in your cellar circuit-breaker box are surely stamped from flat sheet, though this is more for fabrication convenience.

Thanks for the Hermes reference.

Lovely terminal splay on those audio transformers.
Title: Re: 22 or 24 gauge wire?
Post by: amptramp on April 23, 2015, 07:45:30 PM
If you want the schematic for the Hatry & Young receiver, here it is:

http://www.sparkbench.com/homebrew/Hatry/hatryschema0520.gif

It used a newfangled thing from 1929 - tetrode tubes.