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Pick up wire

You have to understand one thing, I am the type of guy that knows if there is something that I can not obtain at that time...then I use what I have. Well, I have been trying that, and so far, no good results except for some wasted time and a huge mess in the garage.

I have been in search of thin copper wire for pick up winding for a while, but nothing I could really use....then today I found a lot of wire in my garage (land scaping light wire) and it was thin, so I started to strip it....well, striping took forever. Then once I got it string, it was a nightmare to untangle because all of the wire is braided together.....anyhow....has anyone out there just slapped a pickp together and got it to work, and if so, what did you use?

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Permalink Reply by Doc Oakroot on August 12, 2009 at 9:35am

Pickup wire is insulated with enamel (or polycoat) painted on. You can't use plain stripped wire, because it will short in the coil.

If you're really ambitious, you could try painting your wire... the enamel paints you use on plastic models should work. (But I would just buy some pickup wire... RS and stewmac both have it.)

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Permalink Reply by JUJU on August 12, 2009 at 9:52am

like Doc says it would be far easier to buy some from stewmac , it's not that expensive and a roll will last you ages , saves all that messing around with guess work and your never gonna find a length long enough to wind a pickup unless you start unwinding transformers and even then the chances of you getting the correct gauge wire and keeping it in one length are very slim i'd even go as for as saying you would have more chance winning the lotto lol!
check stewmac out
http://www.stewmac.com/shop/Electronics,_pickups/Supplies:_Wire,_ca...

juju.

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Permalink Reply by Jerryrig240 on August 12, 2009 at 11:36am

No idea's on the winder as of yet. This is all good info....it gives me some stuff to reflect on. It's good to have some people that know what they are talking.

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Permalink Reply by Doc Oakroot on August 12, 2009 at 1:06pm

Here's a pic of my winding rig for an idea of an easy way to do it. Hand powered so I can go slow enough to keep things under control and not break the wire.