Equipment wire suppliers Options

[geoffwba]

Can anyone suggest/recommend suppliers/retailers of equipment wire? I am looking to tidy up all my layout wiring and need 2-wire and 3-wire cables for my points and accesories. The present wiring is almost all single cable and is to be honest a bit of a hotchpotch ! I have had a trawl through various model railway retailers and Ebay but can't seem to find anything suitable. The wire I am looking for is 7 x 0.20mm and 16 x 0.20mm gauge. I do need quite a bit, minimum 10 metres would be ideal. Also, some sort of cable tags would be useful for identifying wires.

[enM]

Try Rapid on LineRapid
Look for the Hook-up wire.

Ian M

[dwb]

Here's a couple of options

1) Farnell but you will have to hunt a bit to nail down what you want.
Here's a search result for cable markers - https://uk.farnell.com/c/cable-wire-cable-a...on-wire-markers

Last time I ordered, this time last year, I think the minimum order was £20 ex VAT.

2) DCC Concepts
Have a range of ready to use wiring/cabling products.
https://www.dccconcepts.com/product-categor...ng-accessories/

David

[John Webb]

.....1) Farnell but you will have to hunt a bit to nail down what you want.
Here's a search result for cable markers - https://uk.farnell.com/c/cable-wire-cable-a...on-wire-markers

Last time I ordered, this time last year, I think the minimum order was £20 ex VAT......

There is a branch of Farnell, CPC, who deal with smaller orders - see https://cpc.farnell.com/# who are happy to sign up individuals to accounts. They charge delivery for orders under £17.50 (ex-VAT) and free delivery (3-5) days for orders over this sum. I've found them very helpful.

John

[RFS]

If you want 2-wire and 3-wire cables then you can easily do this yourself. Take a choc-block, put the 2 or 3 wires you want to twist into one terminal, and a drill bit into another terminal inserted into a drill. Then put the two/three reels on a broomstick handle wedged between two chairs at the far end of the room. When you run the drill (not too fast!) you end up with twisted cable. How long depends on how far you are away from the broom handle ...

[alanoes]

If you want ready made ribbon then the dcc concepts one is for you, as the others all seem to be single core, but as said why not twist 2 or 3 singles together, will work out a lot cheaper
I actually use the Rapid 7/.02 singles in various colours for my point wire extensions etc and just tape them together at intervals along the route.
Regards
Alan

[geoffwba]

I appreciate all the suggestions so far and it looks like Farnells (who I've used before) might have the cable tags I am looking for. However I am not keen on the idea of twisting single wires together - I would much rather have the wires bonded as they would be much easier to route through holes etc. Neither am I keen on taping wires as in my experience tape can come off and doesn't look very neat. I know certain suppliers sell ribbon type cables but only in short lengths which are quite expensive. I will keep searching.

[dwb]

An alternative to taping wire bundles together is spiral wrap - https://cpc.farnell.com/c/cable-leads-conne...ent/spiral-wrap

For my LED lighting I plaited the 3 cables together. Somewhat tedious but I just dropped the ends through the loft hatch almost to the ground floor which helped keep the wires in order.

David

[Julian2011]

I found that plaiting rope for the boat was easier if the start end was knotted / clenched in some twine and dropped over a convenient large nail in a vice {or similar}. It was then very easy to keep an even tension on the strands as they were plaited. It's only a small thing, but it seems worthy of a mention.

A few years ago it fell to my daily roster to take our young, long haired, lady to primary school and prepare her accordingly. Given that the long hair could get in the way of the school day work and pick up uninvited livestock, it required plaiting ready to go, each morning. With the previous maritime experience, there was little problem with a mere 2 ft plait, done in less than a minute... easy! Nice, tight and even, although I've never been quite sure she was entirely happy with the 4 inch nail in the rear of the skull, to hold the start of the plait.....

Julian

[geoffwba]

An alternative to taping wire bundles together is spiral wrap - https://cpc.farnell.com/c/cable-leads-conne...ent/spiral-wrap

For my LED lighting I plaited the 3 cables together. Somewhat tedious but I just dropped the ends through the loft hatch almost to the ground floor which helped keep the wires in order.

David

Thanks- these appear to be a good idea and might be just what I need. Bonded 2-core equipment wire seems to be difficult to find , whereas single core wire is readily available. If I can figure out what size wrap I need, I will get some I think !

[TheAndrian]

Hi,

Maybe a bit late in helping out. I attach a link from Ebay which maybe what you are after (2 core). A good search term is "2 Core Parallel Flexible wire" or "shotgun cable", the latter term is more used for satellite cabling which is solid core.

The equivalent for AWG wire sizes for 7x0.2 and 16x0.2 are 24 AWG and 20 AWG.

Cheers