Looking for Wire
- Thread starter Travis L. Stevens
- Start date
Travis L. Stevens
New member
I was afraid of that. I'm glad I imagine electricity like water than. 
Travis L. Stevens
New member
Eh, I have a car 
YGPM
YGPM
Russ Braaten
New member
Travis, You use the word "Shave". What do you mean by that? If you mean, use stranded wire and removing some of the wires so it fits, you will not have a problem. If you mean, use solid wire and literally shave the wire down, That would be a No No. Not only would you not be able to tell if you are nicking the wire and not leaving it thick enough but "working" the wire will cause a hardening of the copper and you may cause a failure later on.
In my electrical education in college oh so many years ago. I was told stranded wire was better than solid in every way. I can not think of a reason that solid wire is needed other than if they are using some sort of connection that is nott very tight and would not properly compress the wire strands.
If that is the case, you can use short leads of solid wire just at the connectors and stranded after that.
In my electrical education in college oh so many years ago. I was told stranded wire was better than solid in every way. I can not think of a reason that solid wire is needed other than if they are using some sort of connection that is nott very tight and would not properly compress the wire strands.
If that is the case, you can use short leads of solid wire just at the connectors and stranded after that.
Matrexz
New member
Oooh Magic smoke....Cartinhour would frown upon letting the magic smoke out. Really Travis I'm in aggreement with Steve on all this stuff because this is what has been taught to me over the past years. I don't see a problem with using stranded wire. As for Russ I don't know about the stranded being better than copper every way possible. Solid wire has a lower resistance I thought and the only reason why I remember this is from class where the teacher showed us this huged diamter coax piece that was about 2" in diamter and it has a solid copper material for less resistance.
Russ Braaten
New member
It has been 30 years since college but resistance was the main reason that stranded wire was better than solid. The theory was that solid wire can have bad spots that increase resistance. When stranded don't have a rock in the stream to use the water theory. 
nIx_tank
New member
I think what Travis was meaning by 'shave', is that we would sand down the sides of the ends of the copper to become the gauge we need.
Both Travis and I have the same ballast, and we are trying to think up ways to wire up the ballast.
How we got into discussion about using the larger wire, is that I have got my hands on some solid copper wire, but at 14 guage, not 18. So we were trying to think of ideas of being able to use this wire, over buying some brand new wire of a smaller guage.
Matrexz
New member
Reason why I say this is because the solid has the best power handling and lowest attenuation. Here's a link that I remember looking at for my microwaves class. http://www.micro-coax.com/pages/technicalinfo/applications/28.asp
Travis L. Stevens
New member
Exactly, Nick. Our concern was safety/fire. And as you all have said, there are risks involved with doing this and creating Magic Smoke (whatever that is). But, smoke is usually bad Thanks to eddybabyhd and JR719, I think we have enough wire to go around. BUT, it's still a good discussion for future reference.
Thanks to eddybabyhd and JR719, I think we have enough wire to go around. BUT, it's still a good discussion for future reference.
Travis L. Stevens
New member
Wait a minute. This will get confusing. That was Nick (nIx_tank), but a thank you should be in place to you, too, Nick (matrexz)
newsalt
Active member
I was looking for wire also to wire my ARO 175W ballast. I bought this:
http://www.mouser.com/search/ProductDetail.aspx?R=1565_BK005virtualkey60200000
Here's the spec. sheet.
http://www.alphawire.com/pages/mouser.cfm?pn=1565
http://www.mouser.com/search/ProductDetail.aspx?R=1565_BK005virtualkey60200000
Here's the spec. sheet.
http://www.alphawire.com/pages/mouser.cfm?pn=1565
Travis L. Stevens
New member
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=8128393#post8128393 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by nIx_tank
That's it, there is just too many Nicks around here. From now on, I shall be known as Fernando, the love God.
That is all.
Nah, I'll just call matrexz "Jean-Michel" a la avatar.
Yes, of course I know who the guy in the wierd suit is.Jean-Michel Cousteau
I think we are making this into more than what it really is... I know its very important to wire it up correctly but 18 AWG and 14 AWG are really close in size. Like I said before im pretty sure u could just scrape off alittle of the 14 gauge wire and fit it into your ballast. If we were talking about 8 AWG wire going down into 18 AWG hole , I'd be worried but this is a very small difference in size.
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