source of silicone mains cable by the metre?

soldering iron

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TLC Electrical sell most cables by the metre but postage can be quite high. Have a look for yourself to see if they've got what you want:

Butyl will do the job as well, and is more readily available. 0.75mm - if it will physically fit.

The Night Tripper wibbled on Wednesday 04 August 2010 08:05

It was either Farnell or RS I got my last lot from, very recently. Try Farnell first - easy to find with the parametric searching feature.

Any plumbers merchant will sell you some off the reel usually (for immersion heater and CH applications)

Silicone or butyl? And in black?

Usually silicone IME, not specified the colour in the past, so don't know if they have a choice.

Hi Tim

I tried both places before posting - they only seem to do it by the reel, unless I've missed something.

Regards J^n

Hi Dave

Yes, I know - it was just a suggested size.

Really? the butyl cable I have seen is rated for 'up to 85 degrees (C)'. It may be that it would survive momentary brushes with a soldering iron, but (as I'm sure you know) an iron is a lot hotter than that.

Antex produce their (much smaller) soldering irons with the option of a silicon cable or a cheaper non-silicon one. You can get the cable separately:

TLC local to me - I hadn't thought about them, so thanks.

Quite possibly - it's pretty ancient. It seemed old when I first handled it nearly 40 years ago - used it for soldering model aircraft fuel tanks...

Cheers J^n

The Night Tripper wibbled on Wednesday 04 August 2010 22:33

Mind you, what I didn't realise was that they don't do smaller sizes by the m. I used 1mm2 version of the above for some LV halogen drops, but I guess for an iron you'd rather have something much lighter than 6mm dia.

OK - red herring. ebay?

Hi Tim

Well, I missed those, so thanks very much. £2.75/m tho'?? oh well ...

Nah, 6mm is fine. This is a big heavy iron, not a small Antex or Weller etc. The 6mm cable will be substantially thinner and (more importantly) more flexible than the ancient heavy duty 13A cable it is replacing.

Very little, to my surprise, unless I've not got the right search term.

Thanks a lot for the FEC links

Cheers J^n

Buy a cheap garden extension reel and cut a bit off.

snipped-for-privacy@davenoise.co.uk...

=A0 London SW

What guarantee are you prepared to offer that it will be silicone cable?

MBQ

As stated Farnell do Lapp Kabel silicone cable in 3-core. It will be red in colour, extremely flexible, fine stranded.

For a soldering iron you want silicone a) mainly so it does not tug on the iron when in a stand or when in use and b) re contact temperature. The downside of silicone is it will not slide over surfaces easily, hence the better clothes irons with silicone cable also have it covered in a woven fabric mesh. So a silicone iron cord might do, although price "a bit samey".

Price is not bad, I'm afraid that is what it costs unless you can find a generic "Performance Power" or similar brand which will be about 50% less than the Lapp Kabel kind of price. If it were just a tough rubber like H07RNF you can get that cheaply from

messagenews: snipped-for-privacy@davenoise.co.uk...

d.

I'll guarantee no cheap garden extension reel will be silicone cable...

Thanks for the info.

I hadn't realised clothes irons might use silicone cable these days...

OK, fair enough. I'll probably put it on my list of things to buy with my next FEC order, now I know it's there.

Cheers Jon N

TLC sells all they're cable by the m

This is the correct link for the rapidonline site:

If that's all he wants then CPC is cheaper with the postage.