Layout Electrical Wire Source

[Anonymous]

Hi Everyone,
Where is the best place to obtain bulk electrical wire for our layouts?

Joe McDonnell

[Anonymous]

Depends; if you're looking for bus wire in 12 to 14 gauge, then any big box hardware store would be fine. 16 gauge and below is a little harder to find, though Radio Shack is probably the most ubiquitous source for 20' or so lengths. For more than that, the online electronics dealers like Mouser would probably be the cheapest.

[rrinker]

Got my #12 at Home Depot. Got a 500' spool, too, because it was less than double the price of the 100' spool. Crazy.
I was going to go with black and red, then my father in law remarked that underneath the layout, it's going to be hard to tell them apart. So I went with red and white for my main DCC bus. Conveniently, they had #20 2-conductor 'doorbell wire' what, coincidently, is red and white. That's what I use for my feeder drops.
Really, the color doesn't matter, as long as you are CONSISTENT and DOCUMENT.

--Randy

[mrgstrain]

Hi, I am useing 18 gauge feeder wires to my bus wire. You can get this at auto parts store like parts america or auto zone, i believe 50 ft rool for 2or 3 $ several diff. colors.
Larry

[Leon Silverman]

Randy:
I have an on-line price list from Lowes. 100 feet of 12-2 Romex is $27.95, 250 feet is only $30.90. Similarly, 14-2 Romex is $19.95 and $21.50.

[rrinker]

Yeah, wierd, isn't it? I know there are quantity discounts, but sheesh! I know I'll need more than 100 feet eventually, so that's why I just bought the big spool right away.

--Randy

[Leon Silverman]

The packaging is the cost driver, not the wire. Must take an awfully long time to measure and cut the ends of the wire.

[cwclark]

I use wire that fits the need...for long runs, use 14 or 16 gauge that can be purchased at Lowe's or Home Depot...for short runs, 18 or 20 gauge ...i'll get it by the spool at radio shack...and for my tortoise machines?....find a friendly phone repair guy and ask him real nice if he has some spare telephone wire...they usually always do...Chuck[:D]

[Anonymous]

Phone wire is ideal for switch machines

[rrinker]

QUOTE: Originally posted by Leon Silverman

The packaging is the cost driver, not the wire. Must take an awfully long time to measure and cut the ends of the wire.

Naaaa, they have machines for that. Or I would hope - they certainly do in other industries, such as one of my clients who makes aluminum gutter. HUGE rolls of aluminum are loaded intot he machine, and it pulls off and cuts the required lengths. The only human intervention required is when the big roll is used up, then someone has to forklift a new roll in place and rethread the machine.
Maybe those plastic spools they put the wire on are really expensive... obviously the less wire you package on the greater a percentage of the overall cost the product, but I can't imagine those spools are THAT much. As we PA Dutch say, machts nichts, doesn't matter. I buy the big lots anyway.

Oh yeah, two replies in 1 - phone wire is fine for slow motion machines like Tortoises, with their 15ma current requirements, but NOT for twin-coil machines with their high current demands.

--Randy

[Anonymous]

I work as an industrial maintenance tech and we are adding more production lines where i work. I have asked the electrical contractors to save me the cuts from any of the electronic things they install. I also asked to save any long runs of larger wire that they may scrap as end of spools as they usually scrap these. To date I have a 12" x 12" x 12" box of 20 guage 5 conductor wires that were the excess from some proximity switches they installed. I plan on using these as my feeders.