When building N Scale models and buildings, I use magnet wire since it is so thin.
Is there a simple way to get the enamel insulation off so the wire can be soldered?
Right now I lay the wire on a surface and scrape it with an exacto blade. Is there an easier way?
Sure. Heat up a soldering iron and touch it to the end of the magnet wire. It will melt/burn off the enamel for about half an inch and leave a nice clean end.
MisterB, thanks! I’ll try it tomorrow.
I use Mr. B’s method, same with 30 ga. decoder wire. Most magnetic wire, you can just solder, and the coating disappeares.
Mike.
Thanks, Mike!
Just a quick added note. I have found to cleanly burn the coating on magnet wire a temp of 700 degress works best. I use magnet wire to connect to surface mount leds. It’s very tricky to solder them at 700 degrees. I prefer to lower the temp to 500 to impart less trauma to the poor little led when soldering to them. Thus a case for having a soldering iron that has a temp setting. You can tin and remove the coating on the magnet wire all at the same time. Then lower the temp on the iron and solder directly to the led of board. (pc boards don’t stand up well to high heat either.)
You can burn it off with an open flame as an alternative to a soldering iron.
I use my propane lighter that I bought years ago to ignite my natural gas fireplace. But a cigarette lighter or even a match will do just as well.
The wire is too thin to use an Xacto knife blade without risking cutting off some of the wire strands.
Rich
Rich,there are no strands with magnet wire. Mr B’s method works better if you tim the tip with some solder.
Some is stranded. There is both solid magnet wire and stranded magnet wire.
Rich
I use to dip the ends in a solder bead to burn off the insulation. Then I just started soldering the wire to the LEDs without doing that and the results were the same. The lights went on.[(-D]
Rich is right – there is stranded magnet wire, and even Litz stranded wire, but they are specialty products for special uses. In almost any use in the hobby, ‘magnet’ wire implies solid wire, with either round or square cross section… you’ll find stranded/Litz used far more often for conductors.
The OP is using magnet wire for lighting the interior of his N scale structures “since it is so thin”. Stranded magnet wire is also more flexible than solid magnet wire, especially around corners and other tight spaces. It can also be used with SMD LEDs with its superior flexibility.
Rich
In other words… he’s using fine-gauge stranded wire for conductors [:)]
This is little different from the use of fine-gauge Litz wire in phonograph tone arms – note that I have never heard anyone call that material ‘magnet wire’ in any audio context…
In other words… he’s using fine-gauge stranded wire for conductors [:)]
This is little different from the use of fine-gauge Litz wire in phonograph tone arms – note that I have never heard anyone call that material ‘magnet wire’ in any audio context…
A similar ‘fun semantic topic’ is whether there is such a thing as stranded bell wire… or needs to be.
I did not know there was stranded magnet wire. I have never used it.
I really do not know if the term “magnet wire” is even correct. It’s just what I have always called ultra-thin wire. It is very flexible because it is thinner than a thread. I have never seen it with any kind of insulation other than enamel.
I usually order the tiniest LEDs from Evans Design. They are 0.65mm by 0.36mm by 0.4mm. These come with magnet wires already connected. I don’t trust myself trying to solder wires to these LEDs which are so small they are barely visible to my old eyes.
The methods of heating the wire ends with a hot soldering iron or using a butane lighter to burn off the insulation both work very well. Thanks for the help.
I just did a search for “magnet wire”. I should have just done that in the first place.
I found that there are all kinds and thicknesses of magnet wire. That’s another thing I didn’t know.
Like I said, the wire I was talking about is thinner than a cloth thread. It is so fine that it can easily be broken just by pulling it.
I apologize for the confusion. I should have just looked it up first.
It may not be magnet wire and, if not, you cannot be blamed for that. Quite often, ultra-thin wire, but not magnet wire, is used to wire SMD LEDs. The two types of wire are often confused.
Rich