wires to wire my engines

[werdy666]

Hi,

I'm interested in installing some wiring to my engines for some extra detail. But I am trying to find some small enough wire to use.

I have plenty of cat 5 network cable and phone line, but for 1/20 or 1/24 it just looks to big to me. I have a tamiya Williams 1/20 F1 car to build and that came with some of its own wire which is so much thinner that the cat 5 or phone line wire. Does anyone know what size the cat 5e cable is? like in awg or swg gauge.

I know I can purchase specific sized wire from overseas, but surely my own country of Oz has some very small wire!

Thanks for any advice you can give!

Werdy666

[SteveK2003]

Check out Radio Shack, look for 'wire wrapping wire'. It's a HAIR too small for most heavy-duty applications, but it's a decent size, you get like a mile of it for $3, and it comes in white, blue, and red. White can be painted or colored with a marker.

It's a decent all-purpose wire, for stuff like radio cables and other wiring in a race car, or if you strip it the internal wire might make a good antenna.

[MPWR]

Enameled wire. Get it from Radio Shack or the like (electronics supply house). Looks like this-



Paint it with colored (or black) ink. It is the perfect size for 7mm spark plug wires.

[werdy666]

Thanks!

I got some 0.4mm but I am having trouble getting any colour to stick to it! Tried stamp pad ink, tried permanent marker! How do I colour this stuff properly???

Werdy666

[wouter1981]

well.. you could always prime and airbrush the wires.... If you paint them, There is a lot of chance that the paint would peel off when you bent it.
And 0.4mm is rather tick to use for ignition wires. On cars they are about 7mm so that would be scaled down 0.27mm.
greetings
W

[MPWR]

Try india ink to turn them black, or colored acrylic ink for other colors. Get it at art supply stores.