Salvaging Wire

[chromesphere]

Hi all,
I've seen this discussion come up before at other forums, but i thought i would start one here. 

I've salvaged wire before, some of it has been not so good, and some of it has been excellent.  When they installed the telephone system at our office, they had these thick cables full of, 50+ strands of copper wires.  I have been using that stuff for AGES, but alas, 30 pedals later and im running out. (i should have grabbed more )

I've tried cutting up a few cables.  Cat5 is no good.  I dont like solid core, and its too brittle.  One nice discovery i found was from a standard D sub type VGA cable.  8 strands in that were too small, but the other 4 were sheilded cable and of a decent thickness.

Anyway, the question.  Anyone else out there too cheap to buy cable What has worked for you in the past?

Paul

[nzCdog]

Haha that's resourceful! 

[Haberdasher]

I used to grab the stuff out of vga cables too.  I used it in some of my earlier pedals and it's holding up fine.  That was really the only decent stuff I ever salvaged so I don't have too many other ideas.  One thing I thought of was burned out pc power supplies. There 's quite a bit of wire hanging out of those things and it's easy to get at.  I'm not sure about the gauge though.  

These days I'm spoiled to the silver-bond, teflon-jacket stuff, but if I ran into a stash of decent salvage I probably wouldn't turn my nose up at it.

[masterlk]

I have done some electronics recycling and got some good shielded cable of varying sizes and lengths. Also some other misc wire that i will be using to test with before boxing. That way i can save my good stuff for the final builds.

[chromesphere]

I may be the only one on the planet, but im not a fan of that teflon wire.  Its so stiff and i fight with it, trying to route it around the enclosure.

I think i have a PSU or 2 in the garage, might have to cut off some of the wires.  I know PSU's have large caps in them, any chance of being shocked?  I'd guess no, particularly because they have been out there for 1-2+ years.

Wires pretty cheap, but sometimes if im running low, or if theres cables lying around...i mean...if its decent wire, why not?

[timbo_93631]

I don't like teflon either.  I like "topcoat" or "bonded" wire.  The best source I have found has been in the Lowrey organ I am slowly recycling that continues to give up great parts.  The really nice wire in that thing is 20 or 22 awg topcoat, like the stuff in Thomas Organ Crybaby wahs.  It routes like solid core, and is durable like tinned/stranded.

[juansolo]

Only costs £4 for 100m of the stuff I use so I don't scavenge

[marmaliser]

Only costs £4 for 100m of the stuff I use so I don't scavenge

Where is that from?  I am getting short of wire.

[sam_c]

I salvaged a load of 22-26 awg stranded wire from PC's at work that were being thrown out.  Some of it is a little stiff for routing around pedal enclosures, but its pretty good for wiring guitar guts. 

I dont like seeing stuff go to waste. 

[glowsheep]

I've salvaged wire, among other things, out of old computers and monitors. I'm always keeping an eye open for stuff I can get into and cannibalize 

[Tpetty5]

I salvage out of computers as well.  You can get a fair amount of stranded 22AWG and 20AWG in a variety of colors off of the power supply.

[chromesphere]

Going to have to try that (computer PSU).

I was thinking about xmas tree lights as a source of wire.  Might not work too well though because 1) its all the same color 2) the color is pretty crappy (dark green) 3) i suspect because xmas lights are so cheap these days, its probably steel / aluminium or whatever it is, wire inside?  I usually try to stick with copper. It seems softer / easier to work with.

Paul

[derevaun]

I've snagged a few old VGA monitor switch boxes at thrift stores. They're a box full of wire: four or more connectors with 15 wires each; typically 20-22ga solid/bonded wire in nicely usable lengths.

[juansolo]

Only costs £4 for 100m of the stuff I use so I don't scavenge

Where is that from?  I am getting short of wire.

Guy on ebay, will go hunting and find out who it was.

[chromesphere]

Had a look at the wires on a psu today.  I've always had difficulty working out the AWG size of the wire im currently using, because it doesnt have it printed on it.  But i would say that its half the size of the PSU wire which says "awg20".  So i reckon my current stock could be AWG26ish.  I used to use bigger stuff, about the size of the PSU wires but I find this small stuff much easier to use and to neaten up.  Out of curiosity, what size wire do you guys use?
Paul