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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

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

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.

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

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.

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.

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!!

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.

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

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

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

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.

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

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!

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