It pays to save electronics scrap. I needed a short piece of thin but
not too thin single strand wire and I don't seem to have any except for
a collection of 8 wires soldered into an octal plug from a 1930's (or
40's or 50's?) radio. (the kind of plug that uses a tube socket)

IIRC, I got this 40 years ago and I think I got it from someone else's
scrap, so it's easily 60 years old. The red, blue, and brown wires are
quite pretty but the yellow? wires seem very dirty. I wonder why.

It's actually not single strand but the entire length of the
multi-strand is tinned.

Does that mean they used solder on 100's of thousands of miles of wire
when only a teeny tiny bit ever appeared out of the insulation? Isn't
that a big waste of tin and lead? Do they still do that?



Another interesting factoid: I needed to use for the first time some
liquid rosin flux (in a little bottle from MG Chemicals). I've had it
for 10 years unopened and it has one of those obnoxious caps that you
have to press down before turning. No matter how hard I pressed down,
it eventually ratcheted over what it was supposed to catch on. I tried
over and over, last night. This morning it opened on the second try!
The room temperature is about the same.

"micky" wrote in message
...

It pays to save electronics scrap. I needed a short piece of thin but
not too thin single strand wire and I don't seem to have any except for
a collection of 8 wires soldered into an octal plug from a 1930's (or
40's or 50's?) radio. (the kind of plug that uses a tube socket)

IIRC, I got this 40 years ago and I think I got it from someone else's
scrap, so it's easily 60 years old. The red, blue, and brown wires are
quite pretty but the yellow? wires seem very dirty. I wonder why.

It's actually not single strand but the entire length of the
multi-strand is tinned.

Tinned anyway, yep, at times. I have some rubber
jacketed extension cords my dad used for an early
electric lawn mower that were done like that.

Isn't that a big waste of tin and lead?

Its very thin on the copper strand itself.

Do they still do that?

Havent noticed any.

Another interesting factoid: I needed to use for the first time some
liquid rosin flux (in a little bottle from MG Chemicals). I've had it
for 10 years unopened and it has one of those obnoxious caps that you
have to press down before turning. No matter how hard I pressed down,
it eventually ratcheted over what it was supposed to catch on. I tried
over and over, last night. This morning it opened on the second try!
The room temperature is about the same.

There is a real knack with some of those things.

On Mon, 3 May 2021 03:58:26 +1000, cantankerous trolling geezer Rodent
Speed, the auto-contradicting senile sociopath, blabbered, again:


Tinned anyway, yep, at times. I have some rubber
jacketed extension cords my dad used

Talking about your dad: did he, too, consider you an abnormal sick asshole
like everyone else does?

--
The Natural Philosopher about senile Rodent:
"Rod speed is not a Brexiteer. He is an Australian troll and arsehole."
Message-ID:

In article , NONONOmisc07
@fmguy.com says...
Does that mean they used solder on 100's of thousands of miles of wire
when only a teeny tiny bit ever appeared out of the insulation? Isn't
that a big waste of tin and lead? Do they still do that?

Yes, it is one of the ways that "marine grade" wire is made more
expensive! The idea is that at sea you cannot guarantee that bare copper
wire will be protected from corrosion by the insulation.

In sci.electronics.repair micky wrote:

It pays to save electronics scrap. I needed a short piece of thin but
not too thin single strand wire and I don't seem to have any except for
a collection of 8 wires soldered into an octal plug from a 1930's (or
40's or 50's?) radio. (the kind of plug that uses a tube socket)

IIRC, I got this 40 years ago and I think I got it from someone else's
scrap, so it's easily 60 years old. The red, blue, and brown wires are
quite pretty but the yellow? wires seem very dirty. I wonder why.

It's actually not single strand but the entire length of the
multi-strand is tinned.

Does that mean they used solder on 100's of thousands of miles of wire
when only a teeny tiny bit ever appeared out of the insulation? Isn't
that a big waste of tin and lead? Do they still do that?

I've seen this wire- it looked like the standard cloth covered wire in a
old TV or radio set, but was completely solderered, not just tinned. Not
sure what the reason for this was either.

Another interesting factoid: I needed to use for the first time some
liquid rosin flux (in a little bottle from MG Chemicals). I've had it
for 10 years unopened and it has one of those obnoxious caps that you
have to press down before turning. No matter how hard I pressed down,
it eventually ratcheted over what it was supposed to catch on. I tried
over and over, last night. This morning it opened on the second try!
The room temperature is about the same.

How does flux go "bad"? I use the liquid type in what looks like a paint
marker and it still works fine, way past the "use by" date.

On 02/05/2021 20:30, Mike Coon wrote:
In article , NONONOmisc07
@fmguy.com says...
Does that mean they used solder on 100's of thousands of miles of wire
when only a teeny tiny bit ever appeared out of the insulation? Isn't
that a big waste of tin and lead? Do they still do that?

Yes, it is one of the ways that "marine grade" wire is made more
expensive! The idea is that at sea you cannot guarantee that bare copper
wire will be protected from corrosion by the insulation.



some military grade wires are "made more expensive" by being silver
plated - although they might look like they are tinned.

Also, the insulation is often of teflon instead of PVC

AT

On 2021-05-03, Abandoned_Trolley wrote:

some military grade wires are "made more expensive" by being silver
plated - although they might look like they are tinned.

Also, the insulation is often of teflon instead of PVC

Sounds a lot like wire-wrap wire, a lot of them are ETFE or PTFE
coated (it most definitely isn't all Kynar), silver plated. The
plating is for corrosion resistance (particularly in wire wrapped
joints) although there are some theoretical advantages at high
frequencies I would generally consider the wire unsuitable at those
speeds.

--
Andrew Smallshaw

On 03/05/2021 21:32, Andrew Smallshaw wrote:
On 2021-05-03, Abandoned_Trolley wrote:

some military grade wires are "made more expensive" by being silver
plated - although they might look like they are tinned.

Also, the insulation is often of teflon instead of PVC

Sounds a lot like wire-wrap wire, a lot of them are ETFE or PTFE
coated (it most definitely isn't all Kynar), silver plated. The
plating is for corrosion resistance (particularly in wire wrapped
joints) although there are some theoretical advantages at high
frequencies I would generally consider the wire unsuitable at those
speeds.


I was referring to "normal" multi stranded hook up wire - theres a
different set of rules for wire wrapping.

In some wrapping systems the insulation is left on the wire, and pierced
by the shapened corners of the post - similar to IDC technology. I guess
in those cases the trick is to pierce the insulation, but not the plating ?

AT

On Monday, May 3, 2021 at 12:32:35 PM UTC-7, Abandoned_Trolley wrote:

some military grade wires are "made more expensive" by being silver
plated - although they might look like they are tinned.

Also, the insulation is often of teflon instead of PVC

The process for curing a teflon (or TefZel, etc.) jacket on those wires
does require the silver, for chemical compatibility. Some old wire used
cotton under rubber, for similar reasons (so the insulation COULD be removed,
not permanently bonded to the wire).

whit3rd wrote:
On Monday, May 3, 2021 at 12:32:35 PM UTC-7, Abandoned_Trolley wrote:

some military grade wires are "made more expensive" by being silver
plated - although they might look like they are tinned.

Also, the insulation is often of teflon instead of PVC

The process for curing a teflon (or TefZel, etc.) jacket on those wires
does require the silver, for chemical compatibility. Some old wire used
cotton under rubber, for similar reasons (so the insulation COULD be removed,
not permanently bonded to the wire).

Some high temp teflon wire is nickel plated copper. If you can't solder a strand
of the wire, it's nickel plated.

On Sunday, May 2, 2021 at 11:50:34 AM UTC-4, micky wrote:
It pays to save electronics scrap. I needed a short piece of thin but
not too thin single strand wire and I don't seem to have any except for
a collection of 8 wires soldered into an octal plug from a 1930's (or
40's or 50's?) radio. (the kind of plug that uses a tube socket)

IIRC, I got this 40 years ago and I think I got it from someone else's
scrap, so it's easily 60 years old. The red, blue, and brown wires are
quite pretty but the yellow? wires seem very dirty. I wonder why.

It's actually not single strand but the entire length of the
multi-strand is tinned.

Does that mean they used solder on 100's of thousands of miles of wire
when only a teeny tiny bit ever appeared out of the insulation? Isn't
that a big waste of tin and lead? Do they still do that?



Another interesting factoid: I needed to use for the first time some
liquid rosin flux (in a little bottle from MG Chemicals). I've had it
for 10 years unopened and it has one of those obnoxious caps that you
have to press down before turning. No matter how hard I pressed down,
it eventually ratcheted over what it was supposed to catch on. I tried
over and over, last night. This morning it opened on the second try!
The room temperature is about the same.

Stripping off that 500 wire isn't a bad idea, either.