Looking for parts

[jesse]

 ???I am now ready to install my street lights and various building lights on my first layout.  I need a source for bare solid hookup wire and terminal blocks.  Hope someone can point me to a vendor.  I tried RadioShack with no luck. Any place will do but I live in East Texas.

Jesse

[Jim Banner]

Jesse, why would you want bare wire?  It is much better to use insulated wire, then if two wires touch, you won't have a short circuit.  The only part you need to have bare is just the ends that you connect together, and even those you should insulate with tape, or better, shrink tubing, after you make the joint.

[jesse]

Jim, what I had in mind was to run two bare wires the full length of my layout which is a 4 x 8 plywood base.  My controls are at one end and I planned on spcing the wires about 2 inches apart and then connect my street lights, etc. to them via the terminal blocks. The wires coming from the various lights will of course be insulated and I will solder them to my two buss wires.  The two buss wires will be supported via stringers on the bottom of my layout.

Jesse

[Jim Banner]

The light dawns.  Now I understand.  When I need long lengths of bare wire, I usually end up stripping 14 gauge or 12 gauge house wire for the job.  I have wired the lights on some model railroads using a single, bare return bus down the length of the table.  All the lights, animation, and in some cases, switch motors are returned to this bus.  The use of a single, heavy buss eliminates a great deal of wiring.

I then use several lighter weight supply buses, one each for several different circuits.  For example, all the street lights can be on one circuit.  Building interior lights can be on several different circuits so that I can light up a town gradually.  It is really nice to have all the animation on its own circuit.  Then, when things are quite late at night, I can run trains through the dark in near silence by shutting off the somewhat noisy animation motors.  Each of these supply buses has its own toggle switch at a central panel.  The only supply bus without a toggle switch is the one for switch motors.  It supplies power to pairs of push buttons around the layout for operating dual coil switch motors.

With a heavy return bus, I get very little interference between circuits, even if I use several different power supplies.  Normally, the only noticeable interference would be from throwing switch motors.  This can make the lights go momentarily dimmer if everything is operated off dc or if everything is operated off ac.  One way to avoid that is to run all the lights and animation off dc and run the switch motors off ac.  The return side of all lighting, animation and switching power supplies are connected to the base bus.  Track wiring is completely separate from and independent of the wiring we have been talking about here.

[jesse]

Thanks, Jim...a lot of good points and ideas in your reply.  My 85 year old brain isn't hard wired, so it adapts well to suggestions and recommendations.  Never too old to learn.  Guess I have been in electronics for so long that it was just a natural assumption to use bare hookup and terminals.  I'll put your advice to good use.

Jesse

[roy ginn]

hi all you on the general discussion page
With regard to the question  looking for parts,on wiriung up lamps etc.
I belong to the Shoeburyness model railway club here in the UK.
We use self addesive copper tape, about half an inch wide.
you just attach it to the underside of you layout and pick up power from it where and when you want. Watching this suject from the UK. Good night to you all. roy

[jesse]

Thank you Roy.  I see it is 2241 GMT so I'll keep this short and you can get some sleep   The copper tape sounds interesting, but I have not seen it in use here in the colonies.  Guess I'll have to do some scouting of the supply houses.

Goodnight,

Jesse

[Paul M.]

The copper tape does sound interesting, but I haven't seen it either. Has anyone here in the US?

[richG]

McMaster Carr has copper tape. I have ordered stuff from them the past few years. Since I live in New England, I get the stuff next day. They ship UPS out of New Jersey. They have a wide range of stuff usually at pretty good prices.

http://www.mcmaster.com/

Search their site for copper tape. I am sure there are other sources.

Rich

[jesse]

Right, I just Googled 'copper adhesive conductive tape' and came up with amazon.com.  They have it in stock in rolls 1/4 in X 36 yards for $10.96 roll.

This does not include shipping.  I would imagine the current carrying capability is suitable for our low voltage functions.

Jesse

[richG]

Voltage is not the issue. How much current can be handled is the important issue. Check th size of the tape and do the math. For a few lights that may not be an issue. People who build doll houses use copper tape for lighting inside the house. Use Google to find sites with the formulas. Get the tape that has a clear coating on it. You can usually use a hot soldering iron the melt the coating. Will the smoke released be a problem?? Copper corrodes with time and becomes difficult to solder to unless you sand off the corrosion and use rosin flux when soldering.
Some slot car modelers use copper tape. Do some more searching.
Copper tape can be easy to break.

Rich

[Jim Banner]

I use 1/4" copper tape inside buildings and occasionally on layouts.  Being a stained glass worker as well as a model railroader, I normally buy mine at the local glass shop.  Stained glass workers use copper tape for Tiffany method glass work (think Tiffany Lamps.)

You can run about 8 amps through 1/4" wide foil .002" thick if you don't mind it heating up to about 20 C (about 35F) above ambient.  This assumes the foil is open to air on one side, such as it would be directly applied to the bottom of a sheet of plywood.  WARNING - FIRE HAZZARD do not bury foil between layers of wood or foam.  

As with all wiring, passing current through a conductor will result in a voltage drop.  At 8 amps, a two foot length of 1/4" x .002" tape will drop only about 1/4 of a volt.  If you need less voltage drop or more ampacity, you can use two runs side by side. 

Having said all that, I usually limit the use of foil to inside buildings (including plastic buildings) where I cover it up with paint.  In this application, I don't think I have ever had to go over 1 amp, even in large scale buildings, and have never had heat damage.

[roy ginn]

Good Morning all in USA. i seem to have awoken to train of thought on copper self adesive tape. Its not ment to carry hundreds of volts. 12 volts and not mant amps is ok. Still watching this site. roy ginn in uk.
Have a look at club site.   (shoeburynessmrc.co.uk ) we are just getting ready for our annual exhibition, again bye.

[taz-of-boyds]

Actually it could "carry" a zillion volts as long as the impedance of the load was a zillion ohms or more.  This would limit the current to 1 amp or less (so to speak).

Charles

[Yampa Bob]

I have a roll of copper tape I've been packing around for some 40 years. As mentioned before, we used to build our own slot car tracks on plywood. The adhesive is still very sticky, foil is a bit thicker but that's inflation for you.

Porous surfaces should be well sealed with shellac or urethane for adhesion.