A question about wires

[ilpostino]

In Europe we don't use the term "gauge" to describe conductor sizes as we use mm². This page converts from gauge to mm². Most stores have 0.75 mm² as their smallest/thinnest wires. According to the page I mentioned earlier that's close to 13 gauge. I have seen in TCSS webshop they sell wires with 24 and 26 gauge. Will a wire with ~13 gauge be too big?

[Sevinzol]

Yes too big.
For a rough idea, that wire is used in extension cords. the kind used in sabers is similar to the small wires found in phone cords. Try this. look for old hard drive cables (IDE) they are wide gray ribbons. You can carefully separate what you need but length might be a problem. You could probably check at a computer rapair store.

[ilpostino]

What about using old phone cords?

[Silver Serpent]

0.75 mm2 is between 18 and 19 gauge. I think you were looking at the wrong column. It's still too heavy for saber building.

Phone wire can work fine. It's preferred that you use stranded wire, and not solid core. I've used old ethernet network cables in a pinch.

[Vazan Maceu]

You can also strip unused, old, or broken usb cables, so you can color-code your wiring. A broken or abandoned PC chassis can be an absolute gold mine in terms of wiring, switches, plastic parts to make sleds for your electronics... Plus, you?re recycling and becoming green as Master Yoda

[ilpostino]

Thanks for the tips guys. I havet both old USB and LAN-cables around which I problaby will use.

[Don Se Wion]

The ones I normally use are 0.14 mm².
As far as I know they are close to the ones sold at TCSS and they work perfectly.

[Defcon4]

You can also strip unused, old, or broken usb cables, so you can color-code your wiring. A broken or abandoned PC chassis can be an absolute gold mine in terms of wiring, switches, plastic parts to make sleds for your electronics... Plus, you?re recycling and becoming green as Master Yoda

Thanks, Vazan

[ilpostino]

As far as I can see on this page and this page there are neither red & black cable inside a LAN cable but there are red & black in a phone wire. As far I recall red & black cables are used on buck puck, battery packs etc so I asume old phone wires are the best to use so you get the same color on the wires?

edit: On this page USB have black & red cables are well. Which of telephone and USB is best to use for building sabers?

[Silver Serpent]

You want wire that is stranded copper, and flexible enough to bend easily when you install it in the saber. You don't *need* to use black and red. You can use other colors if you like, but you'll need to keep track of which wires are positive and negative.