Wire guage?

[thosj]

Are you guys using cat5 network cable to wire motors? Seems awful tiny for that, 24 ga., but it seems every pic I've seen has what looks like Cat5.

Tom

[Polygonhell]

For the current your pushing through it 24AWG should be fine.
Having said that I personally use the twisted pair per terminal.

[michaellatif]

cat5 is more then plenty, every wire from a stepper has a twisted pair. At 1.5A per coil at 12v, ~20Watts, 24AWG will work.

[Chris Muncy]

As posted above each wire from the stepper gets its own color pair from the CAT 5 cable.

[Dave_Sohlstrom]

Cat5 cable has 4 pairs they are pair 1 blue and white with a blue trace, 2 orange and white with an orange trace,3 green and white with a green trace and 4 brown and white with a brown trace. use pair 1 and pair 2 for your steppers and you will be fine.

[Leeway]

I have my lathe running on Cat 5 using both wires in the twisted pairs as well.
This is using Gecko 203V's and 72 VDC with 1200 oz nema 34 motors.
If the Cat 5 works for that, then should do okay on nema 17's. That said, you don't want to use it for an axis that will see a lot of movement back and forth. That is to say where the wire would be bending back and forth. My X axis wire is the only one that moves on the lathe and it just slides under the lathe with no bending.

[thosj]

OK, cool, cat5 it is. How do you guys strip the stuff? I have a stripper that goes down to 26 gage and it's TOO BIG to strip the cat5 I have that says 24ga on the jacket. Trying to strip it manually, with an xacto, is pretty tenuous!!

[Leeway]

Propane torch. I have used it before and it does work, but ain't pretty.
My strippers do a good job on the smallest hole. Turn them a little sideways and give a quick jerk.

[michaellatif]

I have a wire stripper with different sized spaces on it. I just use the 22AWG spot.

http://www.mpja.com/prodinfo.asp?number=11717+TL

[JTCUSTOMS]

I use my built in wire strippers......teeth haha! good for the small stuff NOT the big stuff.

[K.Gerard]

Twisted pair network cable is available both as solid and stranded 24AWG. The stranded types are more resistant to fatigue, and since you don't have to care about high-frequency cross-talk and other interference they would be a good fit for the moving bits. Network patch cables are often stranded (but not always!), so these can be a good cheap source of wire. PC recyclers are a good source of this stuff since they often have tear downs of server and switch rooms.

P.S. Often the best strippers are you fingernails - if you have any left. No chance of nicking the core, and the PVC insulation is pretty thin.

KG

[thosj]

The insulation on this 24 ga. wire varies a lot. I have a piece here that stretches forever and will hardly pull off with fingernails. Another piece, different brand, totally easy to strip with fingernails.

[mhackney]

JTCustoms - OMG PLEASE DO NOT DO THAT! Or anyone else - no using teeth to strip wire. Read on...

I used to do it and literally when I made my H-1 I broke one of my eye teeth. I had to have it extracted in early March and now I am waiting before getting an implant. That will cost me about $5000. On the way home from getting the broken tooth extracted I stopped at my local tool store and bought a REALLY NICE wire stripper for $40.

I am wearing a partial now (it sucks) until the surgery heals (30-45 days) before starting the implant process.

Toothless in Groton,
Michael

[JTCUSTOMS]

Oh come on now you just needed to sharpen them first before the build haha!
I also have a nice pair of strippers for the small stuff, just cant find em in the mess.
I can always find my teeth though, well maybe not if I keep on doing it!

[K.Gerard]

Never tried with my teeth... never will now.