Wire guage question

[CodeMonk]

I've started doing COMPLETE wiring diagrams, and they do work a treat. they look a mess with all the coloured pencil, but they do work.

and wiring jigs are good. I use the "cor-flute" vote-for-me posters the pollies leave behind at election time, and make a kinda fold-flat copy of the case I'm going to use. then you can cut the mounting holes with an exacto knife rough as you like, but close to their final positions, mount yr pots and switches, and measure out yr wires and how you are going to run them. having the parts mounted means much less strain on joints from flopping about, and the soldering becames easy cause yr not chasing things across the bench.

you can also make all sorts of insulators and covers and false panels out of that board, and you get to knife a pollie at the same time.

That's something you won't have to repeat to me.
In 1981, after taking a 6 week course in Electronic Assembly at a local trade school, my first job in the industry was at Litton Data Systems in Van Nuys, California.
My job? Assembling massive cable harnesses.
We used big wiring jigs, mounted on either 4 x 4 or 4 x 8 (That's in Feet) sheets of plywood.
Without those jigs, it would have been impossible to do.
I also ended up taking over the wave solder machine/room there.
I really liked that job.

And I prefer using 22awg stranded for pedal builds
I also have some bare, solid 26awg and 30awg insulated for jumpers.

Although, for turret boards, I prefer solid core, around 24 or so (Whatever is handy at the time).

[PRR]

> Most of the cat5 i have cut open is solid core.

In-wall net-wire is solid.... it's significantly cheaper.

Jumper-cable net-wire is stranded; solid would break after a few re-patches.

You can often find 3-10 foot patch cables for a few bucks each. I've had mixed results with these in networks (cheap connectors and low-paid workers mean hit-and-miss connectivity) but if you chop the ends the wire is fine. (Of course if you pay too little you may wind up with solid-core.)

[darron]

i use 24AWG. as everyone has said if you want to use thinner then it's just strength that's a main issue.

for this low current stuff, the way i think about it is:

any thin, thin wire on hand (leaving china out of this) measured from one point to another should measure way, way less than a single ohm. what's the first thing the guitar signal does when it hits a distortion pedal? it often goes through a 1K resistor, 1,000 ohms.

many output pots are 500K. that's half a million ohms. if you had 0.1 ohm unwanted wire resistance before that you'd shave off 0.000019999996% of your volume. can you live with that?

but yeah, might be crappy to work with (:

[Jdansti]

I use the "cor-flute" vote-for-me posters the pollies leave behind at election time, and make a kinda fold-flat copy of the case I'm going to use. 

They also make for great targets, especially if you don't like the politician!  It's usually a good idea to remove the signs from your neighbor's yard before firing at them, though. 

[duck_arse]

we don't allow guns in backyards in these parts. and I have a special "julia gillard" cor-flute I'm saving for a special occasion.

[Jdansti]

we don't allow guns in backyards in these parts.

Then do it in the front yard!   

BTW- I am just kidding. I can't fire my guns within the city limits either (except at gun ranges or for justifiable defense).

Back on topic: Like others, I also salvage wire from computers and other sources.