Where to buy internal wire for control panel?

[smittygouv30]

theelectricbrewery.com sells a wiring kit for 88$ + S&H. Seems reasonable but just wondering how others are piecing together the wires, terminal ends, tie mounts etc? They sure don't give 10 gauge cord away. My goodness.

http://www.theelectricbrewery.com/control-panel-wiring-kit

Thanks,
Corey

 

[dcbw]

I bought my wire for $0.47 a foot at home depot.. But finding a 100 spade terminals in the right size at HD was an exercise in futility as all they had were 5 packs for like $4. No way. Their self adhesive mounts were $10 for 100 1x1s which isn't so bad I guess, but the zipties were additional. Check around, including maybe amazon for better prices.

 

[whoaru99]

Surplus stores can be a good source for bits of this and that.

 

[Jps101]

I bought my wire for $0.47 a foot at home depot.. But finding a 100 spade terminals in the right size at HD was an exercise in futility as all they had were 5 packs for like $4. No way. Their self adhesive mounts were $10 for 100 1x1s which isn't so bad I guess, but the zipties were additional. Check around, including maybe amazon for better prices.

Chech out uline, just got their new book in the mail today.

 

[BadNewsBrewery]

I bought all my wiring from the big box stores - Home Depot / Lowes. They'll cut wire to length for you, or you can buy spools. Buy more than you think you'd need, I was shocked at how much I went through. Radio Shack has connectors / terminal ends for farily cheap. Online stores have them damn cheap, too. McMaster or Mouser for those things, as well as Amazon.

 

[malador]

I've bought wire online from a number of place for both work and home. If you need a whole role I would suggest homewww.automationdirect.com. you can also get cable duct, din rail, and bunch of other things for your control panel.

 

[BadNewsBrewery]

Just make sure you get stranded, not solid. At least in my opinion... stranded is FAR easier to work with as far as making the wire runs.

 

[BrothOfVigor]

I got a box set of ring and spade terminals for a range of wire gauges at harbor freight for something like 12$ for ~300pc set. I think a variety box of heat shrink was something like 6$.

I noticed a couple days too late that the dollar store has packs of zip ties, although I would guess most would be duds, but for 1$ that's probably ok!

 

[kal]

Buy more than you think you'd need, I was shocked at how much I went through.

Same here. It was quite surprising. I think I went back ~4 times for "just another 10 feet". If you do the wiring neatly it means not going straight from point A to point B and it then requires a lot more. It's relatively cheap, so don't be afraid to get extra.

Just make sure you get stranded, not solid. At least in my opinion... stranded is FAR easier to work with as far as making the wire runs.

+1 to that.

Kal

 

[Mb2658]

Stayonline.com has reasonable prices on smaller wire. For 6 gauge, I went with platt.com and for the SOOW cables, I went with wireandcabletogo.com

 

[smittygouv30]

Thanks all for the links and pointers. I'm going to do some research and compare prices. I went to Home Depot tonight on the way home from work.

Here are there wiring prices:

10/4 soow $2.31/ft
10/3 soow 1.69/ft
14/3 soow .97/ft

10 gauge stranded (multi-color) .47/ft
14 gauge stranded (multi-color) .30/ft

Corey

 

[grandequeso]

For the internal wiring look for wire type thhn/thhw. The stuff is dirt cheap for the amount you would need in a panel. Important going to guess around 20 cent per foot

 

[malador]

For the internal wiring look for wire type thhn/thhw. The stuff is dirt cheap for the amount you would need in a panel. Important going to guess around 20 cent per foot

You might also look at MTW or SIS wire for control panels. It's cheaper than the equivalent gauge THHN, way more flexible, and it comes in smaller gauges. Although I don't know where you can buy it by the foot, a 500' 16 AWG roll is under $50.

 

[smittygouv30]

I've done a brief search for the different types of wire. The problem is finding it available in shorter rolls. Even some of the lucky spots sell it by the foot but often have a minimum order amount (25 or 50'). We need to encourage Ryan over at ebrewsupply to stock this stuff and offer custom lengths of wire by the foot. That'd be an easy additional sale to go along with his already great stock. Us control panel "wannabes" would be all over that.

Corey

 

[grandequeso]

Hd or lowes sells by the foot. if the shipping wasn't more than what the wire costs, Id send you some. I usually have a couple garbage cans of scrap wire in my back yard waiting to get scrapped.

 

[BadNewsBrewery]

25' will probably be about right - trust me when I tell you that you're going to use WAY more wire than you expect, at least of the 14ga...

 

[lschiavo]

I got a few rolls of MTW last order from here:

http://www.elecdirect.com/catalog/a312e543-4274-4fc1-b19b-382b58ffdbc9.aspx

 

[vinylicious]

I purchased the majority of my wire from here:

http://www.stayonline.com/power-bulk-cord.aspx

Very reasonably priced and with shipping, it was still much less than buying from the big box stores. I would also recommend buying more than you think you need. I had to get more after I ran out of 14awg for internal wiring.

 

[vraftsman]

On the cheap/free side, keep your eyes out for junk appliances. I wired everything, (except the 30A stuff,) with the wiring harness I pulled out of a junk washer. Best part about it is there are several wires sizes and many colors to make tracing wires in your panel a breeze.
Wiring wasn't done yet in this pic but you get the idea, still easy to trace even before I organized the layout.

 

[vraftsman]

Just make sure you get stranded, not solid. At least in my opinion... stranded is FAR easier to work with as far as making the wire runs.

Easier and also more durable. Stranded wire will hold up better to bending when opening and closing the door. Not that you should have to do this a lot once it's perfected, but during trouble shooting and modification down the road could save a lot of headaches.
Especially be sure to use stranded for any connector wires outside the control box that will be moved around, connected/disconnected often.

 

[BigFloppy]

frys.com

 

[augiedoggy]

I used the 400ft harbor freight wire kit... the odd this is I can find no reference to any codes or ratings on it or the spools anywhere? it does state its for a broad range of uses including ac power.... I wonder how they can legally sell it for use without this info?

http://www.harborfreight.com/400-ft-wire-storehouse-60360.html