Which is better to use stranded or solid wire for the track bus?
[^] I used solid wire (14 guage). It has worked out very well. easy to rap around with the smaller guage wire (20 to 22). It stays put when being soldered.
ennout
So did I, but the fact is that either will work just fine. In fact, I have learned, thanks to the very decent folk on this forum, that if you pre-tin a braided wire, or a filamented one, it is a lot easier to get it soldered to the rails. A wipe of flux, touch the wire to the rail, place the tip of a hot iron against the rail or wire, and she’s done.
I’ve been using stranded 12 gauge wire, but I may switch to solid-core wire and use Romex as my bus (that’s house wire). It will probably be a little easier to attach power take-off leads to the Romex. Only thing is, I have these two BIG rolls of stranded wire…
I use #12 stranded, it’s a heck of a lot easier to pull around corners. I use #22 solid for my track feeders as it is easier to hold in position when soldering to the rail.
–Randy
Electrically, for a given guage, stranded and solid wire are identical.
So the question of which is best comes down to practical issues, and which you prefer.
Personally, I prefer stranded wire. I like its greater flexibility, especially in the larger guages (14 guage wire and larger). In smaller wire sizes below 14 guage, I still prefer stranded because I’ve found solid wire can be stressed easily and break.
If you twist the strands and pre-tin everything as was mentioned earlier in this thread, then I find stranded easier to work with than solid.
I prefer solid #12 for the main buss. It stays in place much better under the table, and forms much better for bends and angles than stranded. Stranded wire MUST be twisted and tinned, otherwise you run the risk of one strand of wire shorting against something because you just didn’t see the little devil. That does not happen with solid wire. For smaller wire, 16 -24gauge, stranded is by far the best for the reason that Joe stated, it doesn’t take much bending to break, especially #24 gauge. I had that happen to me once many years ago when I worked at Raytheon, and it drove me crazy trying to find this darn intermittent loss of signal. A broken wire INSIDE the insulation caused by too many bends back and forth over time. Try finding that one on a radar system!!!
I use 12 and 14 ga stranded. Much easier to work with and the IDC connectors prefer it.
So, to sum up, the answer is: electrically, neither. For the purposes of ease of use, braided. What would I use next time? Whichever piece of wire my eyes befell when I needed it.