It pays to save electronics scrap.

[micky]

It pays to save electronics scrap. I needed a short piece of thin but not too thin single strand wire and I don't seem to have any except for a collection of 8 wires soldered into an octal plug from a 1930's (or

40's or 50's?) radio. (the kind of plug that uses a tube socket)

IIRC, I got this 40 years ago and I think I got it from someone else's scrap, so it's easily 60 years old. The red, blue, and brown wires are quite pretty but the yellow? wires seem very dirty. I wonder why.

It's actually not single strand but the entire length of the multi-strand is tinned.

Does that mean they used solder on 100's of thousands of miles of wire when only a teeny tiny bit ever appeared out of the insulation? Isn't that a big waste of tin and lead? Do they still do that?

Another interesting factoid: I needed to use for the first time some liquid rosin flux (in a little bottle from MG Chemicals). I've had it for 10 years unopened and it has one of those obnoxious caps that you have to press down before turning. No matter how hard I pressed down, it eventually ratcheted over what it was supposed to catch on. I tried over and over, last night. This morning it opened on the second try! The room temperature is about the same.

[gfretwell]

What did you want them to do? Only tin the half inch they thought might be the end of the wire? The difference in cost is minimal.

The fact is, tinning also provides a modicum of protection for the whole length of the wire. If you want to start a fight, try to tell someone on a boat board they don't need tinned wire in their cables. From a production sense it makes soldering a lot easier. I am not sure you can even "wave solder" untinned wire.

[Mike Coon]

Yes, it is one of the ways that "marine grade" wire is made more expensive! The idea is that at sea you cannot guarantee that bare copper wire will be protected from corrosion by the insulation.

[Clare Snyder]

Not very comman any more but there is still "fully tinned" multisctand copper wire - It is used in mrine environments, some aircroft wiring - and even on things like flourescent lamp ballasts - although many of those are now single strand copper

You got stronger after your nap - - -

[Cydrome Leader]

I've seen this wire- it looked like the standard cloth covered wire in a old TV or radio set, but was completely solderered, not just tinned. Not sure what the reason for this was either.

How does flux go "bad"? I use the liquid type in what looks like a paint marker and it still works fine, way past the "use by" date.

[Abandoned_Trolley]

some military grade wires are "made more expensive" by being silver plated - although they might look like they are tinned.

Also, the insulation is often of teflon instead of PVC

AT

[Andrew Smallshaw]

Sounds a lot like wire-wrap wire, a lot of them are ETFE or PTFE coated (it most definitely isn't all Kynar), silver plated. The plating is for corrosion resistance (particularly in wire wrapped joints) although there are some theoretical advantages at high frequencies I would generally consider the wire unsuitable at those speeds.

[Abandoned_Trolley]

I was referring to "normal" multi stranded hook up wire - theres a different set of rules for wire wrapping.

In some wrapping systems the insulation is left on the wire, and pierced by the shapened corners of the post - similar to IDC technology. I guess in those cases the trick is to pierce the insulation, but not the plating ?

AT

[bruce bowser]

Saving power packs is a good idea.