magnet wire

[A6D9]

can anyone tell me what the difference is between regular wire, like maybe speaker wire or telephone wire and magnet wire?

i understand magnet wire will make elec with magnetism,  but what diff is it?  is it solid coper as oposed to strands?  or what makes it diff?

[gordon01639]

Hi,

Magnet wire has a thin non conductive coating of enamell instead of a plastic coating, it can still be iether single or multi strand though. The thin cat of enamell allows many turns of wire in a smaller space than plastic insulation. and makes it ideal for coils.

No doubt some one will come up with a better more long winded  answer but this answer is simple and straight to the point.

Gordon.

[RP]

Magnet wire is simply the name given to enamel coated solid strand wire (enamel is not the only material used for this anymore).

Most wire is coated with a thick plastic type insulation and can be stranded or solid.  Wire used for making electromagnets for motors, speakers, generators, etc. needs to be packed as tight as possble to get the most intense magnetic effect.  Therefore the insulation is simply a layer of "paint".

Other wires are stranded to make them more flexible (not needed or wanted for an electromagnet) and have much more durable insulation so you can step on it, run over it with the vacuum cleaner, pinch it in a hinge, etc.

Any wire can be used to make an electromagnet, "Magnet wire" is optimized for it.

Hope this helps

[kurt]

magnet wire is solid copper wire with a very thin lacker insulation on it which makes it thiner for its size than plastic insulated wire so that it can be wound into nice tight coils. that way you can get more copper in a particular space than you could with regular plastic insulated wire.      

[A6D9]

so basicaly the wire itself is the same...it;s the insulation that is different?

so if one had a large suply of copper wire and could find a way to wind a coil and not have it short out,  like take insulation and try to insulate ourselves,  it could be done, just not worht the time and energie?

right??

thank you very very much

[alancorey]

Right.  Both because of the time and effort and because you probably wouldn't do as good a job of insulating as the pros do.  Keeping the insulation thin is important in getting the maximum number of turns in a given space.

On the other hand, if you were to rig up something elaborate with wire running on rollers through a bath of varnish then somehow being dried before it touched anything...  Also I know in early days they used cotton thread wrapped around the wire to insulate it, but I'm not sure if they used this in magnets or not.

Also, not all magnet wire these days is copper.  Motors in appliances are often wound with aluminum (cheaper) wire, for all the possible problems with dissimilar metals that can cause.  They used to wire houses with it but it caused too many fires.  With the enamel on it looks like copper, but scrape a bare spot and you may find aluminum.

  Alan

[A6D9]

very interesting,  

all your info is most appreciated...and the aluminum wire?

had no idea...i did know hosue some had alum for wiring.  learned that the hard way when i got ym first home.   lol

have a great weekend all  and thank you

[Flux]

You would find it near impossible to coat your own wire satisfactorily and the cost of bare wire is so close to the coated that it would be crazy to try.

The earliest wires were covered with cotton or silk and it was indeed used for machine windings. Machines tended to use single or double cotton covered ( double had a second layer wound in the opposite direction. The silk was expensive but wasted less space and tended to be used for instruments and induction coils where space was a big factor.

Later coatings ( in UK at least) used an Oleo resinous enamel and wasted far less space.

 Later synthetic coatings were developed to work at higher temperature. The first was PVA and these coatings were probably the best mechanically of all. For even higher temperature Polyester was developed and then the 2 coat polyester imide/Amide.

Polyurethane is used in non critical applications as it can be soldered without stripping, it is very useful in fine coils for clocks and small electronic components.

For even higher temperatures mineral coatings were developed originally using asbestos.

Now replaced by Kapton and similar which are wound on as a thin tape.

Flux

[finnsawyer]

I think the magnet wire may also be a softer wire to make it easier to lay down.