Hookup wire

Depends on the current. Circuit boards are sometimes rated by the ammount of current they can carry. Usually in ounces of copper, then you figure out how wide to make the traces to carry the current you want.

I am using these.

should be fine. I like 22AWG for the breadboards, 26 doesn't grab that good, but ok if you're soldering it.

For low-power situations, I like the 30AWG that is used for wire-wrapping. With standard Kynar insulation, you need to solder carefully to avoid melt ing the coating. I like wire with Teflon insulation even better, but it is hard to find and you need a special stripping tool.

Number 26 wire will probably handle anything the traces will.

For the sort of thing you are doing it is fine.

I use some 26 AWG multicolored ribbon cable when I have a lot of interconnections. Rip off the colors I need from the ribbon, rather than stock rolls of different hookup wire. Old computer cables can work well too since they are often color coded.

Yeah good for soldering but I found it bad for breaking at the joint.

It is a matter of skill and craftsmanship. You have to learn to strip the insulation without nicking the wire.

For dead bug I use either the component leads littering the bench or #26 solid tinned bare copper.

Cheers

Phil Hobbs

That was using the fancy stripper and checking for nicks, I put it down to the stiffness of the insulation.

the

My stripper looks like a pair of needle-nose pliers with a machined groove near the tip. I think they cost about $50. It works really well on Kynar, Teflon, and the PVC used in the rainbow-colored IDC flat able. It was mad e to strip the end for wire-wrapping, and any nick would have made the wire too fragile to wrap.

I also prefer 2A tweezers to do the point-to-point manipulation, and 63-37 solder.

p the

e near the tip. I think they cost about $50. It works really well on Kyna r, Teflon, and the PVC used in the rainbow-colored IDC flat able. It was m ade to strip the end for wire-wrapping, and any nick would have made the wi re too fragile to wrap.

Speaking of strippers. Mine is made by commercial electric and it often cut s into the copper and the the crimper is useless.

What do you recommend? Andy

I've been stripping wire (on an infrequent basis) for 60 years. I still have to be very careful about nicking it.

For a noob*, a fail-safe way to do circuit-board lengths, is to use bare wire and slip on spaghetti tubing for insulation.

Bare wire & tubing is also convenient for daisy-chain runs where a single wire can be used for multiple connections. Eliminating the cut-and-strip for each connection.

Bob

• - I no longer consider myself a noob, but I still use the bare wire and tubing

This looks like the one I like, and the description says it has a 30 mil stripper. They want $35, so about $40 with tax and tip.

Access denied for this server..........

Home Depot is big box store similar to Bricomart. The pliers are made by K lein Tools and the part number is L1-71980 (I am guessing that 100647683 is the Home Depot SKU). If you Google "klein telephone pliers", it seems che aper from Amazon, but a couple negative reviews indicate that they are ship ping a cheap knock-off.

It used to take me a coupe of tries before I got the light touch right and by then I'd probably shortened the cable too much :-)

I jam the hinge with my index finger if I need more control.

Well, I've been building protos for almost 50 years. You get good at it after awhile.

Cheers

Phil Hobbs