Braiding wires...

OOOKAY...so I was thinking about this when I was wiring up lights on the truck at work.

when I braided two 16 gauge wires together, it felt and looked like 14 gauge wire...

I'm wondering if it has the same power handling capabilities as a higher gauge wire..

I'm thinking it would be less because it's taking two different routes through smaller tubes right? but I'm thinking that it's more power handling than simply running smaller wire...

ie..if you're tight on $$ and you have lots of 16 gauge wire...and you need 8...would it be effective to braid like 4 or 5 16 gauge wires together?

what about if you take off the casings and then rewraped them in some kind of plastic tube or something. would THAT be the same?

yes if the strand count was the same.

interesting....I think i'm going to go braid a whole bunch of 16 guage wire together...ahhaha

Not strand count, if the circular mills are the same ;)

Two 16 gauge wires = One 13 gauge wire
Four 16 gauge wires = One 10 gauge wire
Eight 16 gauge wires = One 7 gauge wire
Sixteen 16 gauge wires = One 4 gauge wire
Thirty-Two 16 gauge wires = One 1 gauge wire

Basically, two of one wire = one of wire 3 gauges larger (i.e. 2 x 18 = 1 x 15, 2 x 10 = 1 x 7, 2 x 20 = 1 x 17, etc.)

I dunno if this is true but I remember something about it from gr11 physics. Electrons travel through the circumference of wire. That's why two wires of the same gauge are actually better than one wire one step up. i.e. the circumference of 12 or 11 gauge isn't twice that of 13 gauge. But twice the curcumference of 13 is a lot closer to 10. Now, granted I haven't went out and measured this but just kinda did one of those "thought experiments".

EDIT: Ok, I decided to actually look at some numbers. Now, this is using AWG wire, 6 and 3 gauge.
6 Gauge - Dia = 0.16202 in Circumference = .509 in
3 Gauge - Dia = 0.22942 in Circumference = .721 in
Clearly two 6's aren't one 3. But this is where I make my first mistake. When you combine the wires you don't get TWICE the diameter. Think about it, I can't explain well. Maybe that's why I'm not becoming a teacher. ANyways, to increase the diameter it's going to take more and more material, most of you guys seem educated so I won't go further. But, it does seem reasonable that it'll give you what? An increase of maybe 50%? 1.5*(0.509) = 0.764 Ok so it isn't exact. But hey, it kinda works, maybe someone can run the area figures and get it exact. That's assuming my original assumption was correct. Two assumptions, you know what they saw when you assume . . .

Here's the thing ...

A 4 gauge power wire isn't just one big solid wire, it's made up of hundreds of smaller wires with the AREA of 4 gauge ...

Strand count tells you the size of the smaller wires used (e.g. Strand count = 1024, so the 4 gauge wire is actually comprised of 1024 x 34 gauge wires. Strand count = 512, 4 gauge wire actually comprised of 512 x 31 gauge wires.)

TOO.... MUCH.... MATH!!!!! HEAD HURTING!!!!

Save up and get a roll of the correct guage wire you need.

just my $.02

I'm running 8 gauge in a 250watts rms system. it's good enough heh

it was just something I was thinking about.

I'm running 8 gauge in a 250watts rms system. it's good enough heh

it was just something I was thinking about.
Indy always causing problems...*lol*...at least we know who to call to stir things up 8)

ahhahaa hells ya

I'm running 8 gauge in a 250watts rms system. it's good enough heh

it was just something I was thinking about.

I've used 8 gauge to power 300 watts rms before. It's fine. But that's an interesting point you brought up. But if you look at it it in the most simplistic way, You're doubling up on the same gauge wire, why wouldn't the Max Current Load also be doubled? But in the end, I'm not sure, Jmac279 and ERTW seem to have a point and obviously know more than me about current flow. I think this a question for the Good Doctor.