14g Wire Runs (hard vs strand)

[camerajunkie]

Planning a squonker box and I posted this question in the BF sub-forum.
I want to make my positive and negative wiring super clean and with the least amount of resistance while being safe. I've been seeing what I call "hard lines" going to the fire button, mosfet, or regulated chip. Are there any tutorials on how to do this and what the official term is called? Pics for reference.

Also where do you guys source your positive and negative contacts? I don't really like the keystone battery sleds or battery sleds in general as they take up a lot of room. I keep trying to find silver contacts but I can't seem to find any.

Edit** Did some searching and found these 2 types of 14g wiring, is this overkill? I really wanna do some fancy wire runs

Wire, sterling silver, half-hard, half-round
Wire, sterling silver, half-hard, half-round, 14 gauge. Sold per pkg of 5 feet. - Fire Mountain Gems and Beads

Wire, sterling silver, full-hard, half-round, 14 gauge
Wire, sterling silver, full-hard, half-round, 14 gauge. Sold per pkg of 5 feet. - Fire Mountain Gems and Beads

Attached Files:

 

[K3nn0Q]

The term would be "solid" wire (as opposed to stranded)
For any given gauge, the current capacity is the same for stranded vs solid wire. Solid is going to be much stiffer, but have a slightly smaller cross section (stranded has air gaps between strands).
16-14AWG is what most modders use; depends on bow much max current you intend to use.
Silver wire is overkill, since the cost generally outweighs the conductivity advantage vs copper

 

[gpjoe]

I don't build a lot of mods, but have used solid copper "Romex" house wire, which is commonly available at most hardware and home improvement stores in 14ga. It seems to work fine in my mosfet boxes.

As far as contacts - I use 3d printed sleds from ebay, which come with the contacts. I don't think they are silver, but work very well with the printed sleds.

 

[K3nn0Q]

All the 3D printed sleds I've seen use Keystone contacts (or a clone of). They're stainless, plated with nickel to ease soldering and resist corrosion

 

[camerajunkie]

All the 3D printed sleds I've seen use Keystone contacts (or a clone of). They're stainless, plated with nickel to ease soldering and resist corrosion

Thanks for the info, I'm trying to plan out an artisinal mod, and have been looking into 14g fine silver solid wire now 99.99% silver vs sterling silver. The stuff I'm seeing seems to be extremely malleable. Which is to my point of how malleable is too malleable for a solid wire run.

Do you folks know if there are any tutorials on actually planning and implementing a solid wire run? I just see people having it in there, but no actual tutorial on how to do it. I'm planning on making a dna 75 squonker.

Pics for reference of what I'm trying to do

 

[K3nn0Q]

I've not seen a tutorial for it, personally
Best advice I can give is plan it all the wire runs beforehand, straighten the wire as well as possible and use a mandrel to make your bends, and above all take your time!
I've found the more you can solder outside the box, the easier it is - more angles to access with an iron
This is a box I've done - 2S unregulated in a CNC 1590G, using a Keystone sled
While I used silicone jacket stranded wire, much of the planning is the same. The major difference is, if you use a spring 510, you'll need to remember to allow for the wire to flex with the center pin

 

[gandymarsh]

Al USAF has a video that might give you some useful info. I suggest that you watch this on Youtube. He makes a mistake in the video that he corrects in the comments.

 

[david4500]

Al USAF

Anyone know what happened to him? No updates from his youtube or instagram for quite sometime

 

[gandymarsh]

Anyone know what happened to him? No updates from his youtube or instagram for quite sometime

@david4500 Have you tried to email him? Hopefully, he's just busy with life and family.

 

[RickCain]

Many modders are using solid copper wire and even making boxes with grooves to tuck them in. I found Temco has a good assortment of solid copper wire that is coated. Bought some today!