Seriously, where do you guys buy wire?
I went to every store in town I could think of from home depot to radio shack to walmart to batteries+ looking for wire to install a new headphone jack and a ps/2 port and couldn't find anything.
And while we're at it, is there any specific brand/style you prefer over others?
I mean, it's just basic stranded copper wire in heat shrink. right?
Is there something I'm missing that I should be looking/asking for?
Both my local Home Depot and radio shacks carry wire. Ask a clerk?
Or buy it from their websites?
i've had good luck with destroying 1/8" to 1/8" cables
but realistically, you should try internet stores that sell electrical components.
mouser electronics is pretty reliable/legit. http://www.mouser.com
edit for repetition
Last edited by basspuddle (May 7, 2013 1:56 am)
I get mine from radioshack. I like the 24 gauge 2-conductor speaker wire so I can split the thing in half and have two colors of wire in one roll. Also I think the wires are covered in wax instead of rubber or plastic cause I can use a lighter to melt it down and expose the wire and it doesn't smell or smoke or anything. (sometimes i get fed up with trying to use a wire stripper on stranded wires)
I had to hit up a computer repair shop because radioshack, home depot, and the like did not have useable wire. I just bought some ribbon cable and stripped it down.
I find it kind of insane that you could find ribbon cable and not just wire
I get tons of coiled wire online, and occasionally get ribbon cable from radioshack in addition to wire wrap.
Plain wire is in electrical section of any hardware store. Any home electronics store should have paired speaker wire and any music store will have guitar leads/cables.
a long long time ago when I had like 3218 synths and other things, I ran out of cables all the time. So I got tired, went to the electronic surplus store, bought half a mile of military-grade industrial-strength space-age other-hyphenated-words cable (2 wires w/ ground sleeves + shield) and a box of 1/4" 1/8" and XLR Neutrik connectors. Never had any problems again, and if they start breaking at the connector, you can always just resolder them. Dee Eye Why cables are much better than most crappy store cables, but they'll cost you a bit more as initial investment.
I find it kind of insane that you could find ribbon cable and not just wire
I said useable wire. All the wire I was finding was thicker gauge than I wanted to work with. I installed a few biversion chips and the wire at radioshack and home depot was kind of thick.
When I needed thin wire I took it from a crocodile clip with wires connecting them for circuit testing kind of set, and I kept the clips after because they're handy as heat sinks and holders while installing capacitors and such.