can anyone please put me onto a cheap site for 38 to 40 gauge copper wire ., no American sites please ., the postage is just to exorbitant., I need it eventually ., for the rigging of my 1/150 le superbe ., thank’s guy’s . steve
What country are you in?
electrontubestore.com/index.php. Canada
That site has some interesting stuff aside from wire!
Take apart old junk radios/tvs, etc. Unwind coils and transformers, especially IF transformers. Lots of enameled/bare wire in those.
thanks for your help guy’s , sharkbait i’m in austrlia
Used to be able to buy spools of coil wire. Great stuff.
I agree !
I notice the Good Will ( Charity / donation stores ) in the USA are selling donated VCRs for cheap prices;
VCRs have transformers and motors in them that would be a good source of wire.
.
And that reminds me: I just removed an Intel MOBO from a now obsolete computer.
I need to check it for salvageable components.
Am just now thinking of all the electronics hobbyist stores that used to exist in the 1960s and 1970s…sigh.[:(]
In the 2010’s! I was just out shopping and thought…“oh I need an LED for a project”.
Nearest 'Shack 15 miles away and I live in a huge metro area.
Prior to the Radio Shack bankruptcy, I was able to buy magnet wire of differing gages from a local Radio Shack.
I now know of only two Radio Shack stores that still exist in the Chicago metro area.
Unfortunately, I do not know if it is still possible to buy the wire at Radio Shack now.
I’m just happy that I now have some wire for future use.
I tried what you said don ., an old heater ., the cable has 18 strands of copper wire in each cable , I’m sure the gauge is close to what I want , thank’s for the tip ,the price was right too. lol
Guess we’re lucky, there are 5 Radio Shack’s in the Grand Rapids metro area.
There are a number of online electronics supply houses that offer pretty good service. I use Jameco a lot. But, the offering of magnet wiring is sparse in most of those. Most radios and such have much fewer coils- digital filters and digital phase lock loops replace analog type filters. And home building by hams has dropped off a lot- most hams just buy the stuff. So, not much demand for fine wire.
At one time, it was possible to buy a number of electronics kits ranging from volt meters to colour TVs.
Another possible source: at almost any store that sells CDs you can pick up a pair of “ear buds” for practically nothing. The wires on those things are highly flexible, and if you strip off the insulation you can separate the strands into extremely fine individual wires. (They may in fact be too fine for your purposes.)
Bluejacket (www.bluejacketinc.com) sells some very nice, flexible copper wire that’s .005" in diameter. That’s only .001" away from 38 gauge.
Sprue-ce Goose, are you talking about the old Heathkit line? They were great fun.
That’s it ! [t$t]
Yes, they were !
Good point. I also have gotten some very fine wire from beading section of craft stores. It is expensive on a per foot basis, but then few models take very many feet. Also, more of a selection of color. Silver looks like stainless wire for fuel and oil lines, gold/brass is good for older subjects that used a lot of brass tubing. They also have some colored stock that takes paint very well.
If you clamped one end of that Bluejacket .005 wire in a vise and gave the other end a yank, I’ll bet the wire would stretch in length and shrink in diameter by at least .001."
By the way - just how do you intend to use this wire on the model? I’m wondering whether brass wire is really the best thing for the purpose.