9 replies to this topic

[Arthur Brown]

www.wires.co.uk

copper and nichrome down to 0.05mm that's 40swg ish! And unlike ebay you get a 25 or50 gramme reel instead of two metres.

[dr thrust]

thanks i will check it out, ive been after some 35 swg

[lew]

Whats the best size wire for using for ematches?

Does the wire get thinner the higher the guage number? eg - is 40 guage thinner than 30?

Edited by lew, 30 July 2007 - 08:37 PM.

[Arthur Brown]

UK SWG is bigger number for smaller size. Some of their sizes are now metric and near to SWG sizes, by convention odd SWGs were less common.

[dr thrust]

ive tried them all! 25,30,32,40, so far 32 was ok but i "think" 35swg will very good, 40 is a bit thin for my fingers!

[cooperman435]

Definitely get the thinest wire possable.

I use 40 swg and it will easily fire from small currents but thinner wire would be still easier and quicker in use.

The thinner the wire the higher the resistance which results in ematches that fire quicker and from less power in the field so are much more reliable.

[pudi.dk]

I found to sellers on eBay that sells 0.1 mm nichrome wire (42-43 swg if i'm correct), do you suppose this is thin enough for the "camera flash circuit" igntion?

I bought 32 swg once, but it didn't really work.

[marble]

If its anything like the copper wire i have its a pain in the arse to solder with. So small and breaks easily

[cooperman435]

If its anything like the copper wire i have its a pain in the arse to solder with. So small and breaks easily

Nope nichrome is nothing like copper wire to work with.

Its many many times stronger but is very hard to solder without the correct flux. I use a mechanical way of securing the nichrome wire to the leads of my ematches by simply twisting it round the bare copper wire.

[paul]

There is a way to get very good connections without soldering
nichrome to the e-match wires!


I use this way to make very reliable e-matches: (click to enlarge!)



It´s a bit time consuming but it´s safer than just twisting
the nichrome around the thicker wires!

With the 0.6mm silver-plated wire (cheap stuff!) you can apply
lots of pressure which forces a good connection between nichrome-wire
and the e-match wire!


This is what the finished ignitor looks like:





BTW: I got my 0.1mm nichrome wire on a 1400m mini-coil for 15euros!

Edited by paul, 31 July 2007 - 10:41 AM.