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Smd/led wires for oo gauge vehicles


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Hello all and I hope everyone is well. 

 

I've decided to start wiring tiny surface mount leds or (smds) and leds into vehicles to give lights like headlights and emergency vehicles with blue flashing lights, as the lights are so small naturally it needs thinner wires to route to them in the vehicle this also makes for a better look as you can hide them inside the vehicle as they are oo gauge Oxford die-cast vehicles. 

 

The problem is I can't find any ultra thin cable anywhere, went on flea bay and bought some 28awg cable which I thought would have been thin but its the same size with the insulation plastic on as probably 7/0.2. 

 

Does anyone know where you can get really thin cable or if anyone else has done this type of work, any advice would be much appreciated. 

 

Many thanks

 

Huw

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USB charger cables are pretty thin and keep breaking so the wire comes free. The cable itself should be OK, as they fracture near the connectors (often irritatingly intermittent.

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Search for enamelled copper winding wire.  It is the wire used for windings for motors (the name gives it away).  It comes in different sizes but is very thin.  A scalpel or something similar can be used to scratch the enamelling away at the end for soldering. You need to come up with a system though to distinguish positive/negative.

 

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Edit Huw - just thinking about this - I’ve got a couple of reels, more than I will ever use.  If you want to, PM me your address and I will stick a few metres in the post for you to try.

 

Edited by BoD
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There seems to be  a lot of very small wires in old tower computers. photocopiers and the like. Thinner than anything I have found in Poundland and Insulated with plastic they are too thin for me to do anything with.   Just make sure if you use  0.1 amp wire you have 0.1 amp overload protection because these wires glow red hot if they are shorted out.  I think I threw the last lot in the bin which was collected today, but if not I will post pic.  Might even advertise it on eBay!

Edited by DavidCBroad
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3 hours ago, BoD said:

Search for enamelled copper winding wire.  It is the wire used for windings for motors (the name gives it away).  It comes in different sizes but is very thin.  A scalpel or something similar can be used to scratch the enamelling away at the end for soldering. You need to come up with a system though to distinguish positive/negative.

Most enamelled copper wire is self fluxing, no need to scrape, just tin it as if there were no enamel.

 

Edited by dhjgreen
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I hadn't binned my wire.  It was in one of my many scrap boxes.  It's less than 1mm diameter over the insulation. 6 strands.  No idea what wire diameter.  May well be suitable. My lengths are over 32"   I regard it as too thin for the sort of applications I tend to use it for but see pics.   Actually I will probably put it on eBay now I have taken photos of it.

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