[Lil' Knight]

I've just found a store near my house that sells solid core wires to make jewelry stuffs. It's 22g and 26g and insulated.
I wonder if I can use these wires to make some ICs ?

Thanks

 

[Punnisher]

Insulated? I wonder what kind of insulation they have...

If it's pure silver, it would work just fine.

Though make sure it's pure. Some are meant only for jewelry, like the tarnish-free type that's some kind of alloy.

 

[Lil' Knight]

My wrong, it's non-insulated. Just the bare core of wires. The core is said to be copper.

 

[synaesthetic]

I've heard of people making ICs out of pure silver jeweler's wire. Getting the dielectric on them would be the hard part though. =/

 

[Lil' Knight]

Sounds nice. Maybe I'll take a try.

Isn't putting it into teflon tube quite easy? I've put my solid silver into the teflon, quite difficult at first, but when fitted, it went very smoothly.

 

[Punnisher]

Yeah its really easy to put on. I had a length for making an lod, and I slid the tube on the whole thing to test it. It was a few feet long, no problems.

Trouble is getting the right awg tube.

 

[akione]

I've made them from silver-plated copper wire and heat shrink. It works very well.

 

[threEchelon]

Yes, although they are of lower purity than what is normally used: one less 9, I believe.

 

[threEchelon]

Btw, heatshrink is a poor dielectric, and ime, it's not very flexible.

 

[akione]

Quote:

Originally Posted by threEchelon /img/forum/go_quote.gif Btw, heatshrink is a poor dielectric, and ime, it's not very flexible.

I don't move my interconnects around

 

[akione]

Quote:

Originally Posted by threEchelon /img/forum/go_quote.gif Btw, heatshrink is a poor dielectric

Got any tech. on that ? I'd be interested to know why.

 

[Lil' Knight]

Maybe I should take a risk lol.
The wires cost me about 15$ for a roll

 

[akione]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lil' Knight /img/forum/go_quote.gif Maybe I should take a risk lol. The wires cost me about 15$ for a roll

Why not ?

Over here we have a place - wires.co.uk , who sell wire for jewelery making.
I bought a sample pack of assorted silver-plated copper wire for a fiver.
I've used it for everything from ICs to the internal wiring of my balanced DAC/preamp.

Sounds superb.

So, yes, I think it's worth a punt.

 

[threepointone]

Quote:

Originally Posted by akione /img/forum/go_quote.gif Got any tech. on that ? I'd be interested to know why.

Depends on what type of heatshrink you're talking about. I've seen teflon and PVC heatshrink before--obviously, those types of heatshrink probably perform about as well as regular insulation.

 

[akione]

Quote:

Originally Posted by threepointone /img/forum/go_quote.gif Depends on what type of heatshrink you're talking about. I've seen teflon and PVC heatshrink before--obviously, those types of heatshrink probably perform about as well as regular insulation.

Thanks for the reply.

I'd still be interested to know why heatshrink rated at >2.5 kV is not a good dielectric for line level signals.

( Of course, we're not dealing with extreme environments here. Just domestic Hi-Fi, so no high temps or solvents, oils etc
where PTFE etc would be needed.)