I previously bought some THHN wire from home depot and it was aweful. Yes it was stranded, but the strands were super thick and the wire was just not bendable at all.
Where do I get the nice flexible wire and what is it actually called?
There are many uses for wiring in DCC. If you are referring to the power bus I recommend stranded 14g wire. For feeders I use 22g solid wire. For wiring control panels I use 22g or 20g stranded. For locomotives (decoder installs, lighting, etc.) I use 30g stranded.
You can get the bus wire at one of the big box hardware stores or an electrical supply house.
I use Vetco.net for the 20g and 22g wire, available in many colors.
Litchfield Station is my vendor of choice for the very flexible 30g.
Yeah, THHN wire is a pain. It is good for something in DCC. I used it for my main buss wire, where its thickness and lack of flex is actually an asset. If using wood benchwork, you can just drill parallel holes through it to hold the wire. You'll need a hefty soldering iron to tie your main drops (16 to 18 gauge) to it, but it should be more than adequate for anything you can throw at it in terms of amp draw, etc.
Mike Lehman
Urbana, IL
Hmm, #14 and #12 THHN is all I've used for DCC bus wiring. I've not had a problem pulling it through holes in my benchwork - the key is making sure the spool turns. If you just pull it off the side of the spool, it twists horribly and if you're like me and just drill holes big enough for the wire and not monster size openings, it will eventually tangle against the first hole. As long as it actually unspools, ie, the spool itself can turn, the wire comes out nice and smoothly. On my smaller layouts Ijust cheated and turned the spool to unwind approximately how much wire I needed, when I start this basement thing I will do it right and use some scrap wood to make a little stand with a piece of conduit for the spools to roll on.
That's the only real trick to easy working with THHN. For stripping, you need something like the Ideal Stripmaster, you can strip back parts in the middle of a wire run to attach the feeders.
--Randy
Modeling the Reading Railroad in the 1950's
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Randy,
Good point on how to get it off the spool right. IIRC, THHN is designed for use in conduit. I first came across it watching electricians at work and that's how they did it. I made a set of parallel wood blocks with a short piece of pipe in between acting as a roller to do this, although you can probably find a fixture to do it if you have a big job and want to spend the money to go first class.
If I find a cheap on I may just buy one, but I'm too cheap to buy some expensive spool rack - I'll make one like I mentioned.
Yeah, if you just laid a spool of THHN on its side and tried to pull it through conduit, you'd have the same sort of problem.
House 14 AWG solid is common and inexpensive - thats what I'm using for my DCC main bus. I'm using 18 AWG solid "bell" wire for my drops. Those in combination are sized well for the Scotchline "Suitecase" connectors which about half the MRR community uses.
Rio Grande. The Action Road - Focus 1977-1983
Copper.
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