Does anyone know any sources for the old style cloth covered or silk covered wire in quantities of a 100 feet or so. Ive bought wire from radio daze but it doesnt seem right for my purpose of winding coils. (But it is good quality wire and I use it for general circuit wiring.)
Has anyone ever purchased the push back wire from AES ? It looks like it would suit my needs being as it only has the cloth covering and not another layer of insulation beneath.

I've bought the solid core cloth covered 20 gauge wire from AES. It's good for most under chassis wiring and comes in 50 ft spools, but it is cloth over regular plastic type insulation.

They also have stranded wire, same gauge, same covering for the same price.

I love their push-back wire. It comes in three colors, black, red, and green. You have to search for the other two colors. Whoever wrote their catologue and their web site did not know how to put all of the colors together. Furthermore, they may have run out of one of the two colors.

Not sure if the push-back wire would work for winding coils, but it's great stuff. What I did once, when I used it to rewire a radio, is I bleached all of the wire I wanted for colored applications. Then I colored the wire with food coloring. If the wire was then waxed, it would be water proof. If not, just try not to get your radio wet. That is a good idea, anyway.

Thomas

Lietz wire is still made, but only in limited quantities, but like what AES sells, it is usually not using cotton covering.

If you watch at garage sales, estate sales, flea markets, etc, you can occaisionally find old single strand magnet wire with cotton covering. Over the years I have picked up several spools, and even by shear chance found some Litz wire. Some alternate sources for Litz wire, if you are not going to see the wound coil is to raid it from some of the RF chokes from some of the old TV sets.

:Does anyone know any sources for the old style cloth covered or silk covered wire in quantities of a 100 feet or so. Ive bought wire from radio daze but it doesnt seem right for my purpose of winding coils. (But it is good quality wire and I use it for general circuit wiring.)
:Has anyone ever purchased the push back wire from AES ? It looks like it would suit my needs being as it only has the cloth covering and not another layer of insulation beneath.

Hi, Warren.

Push-back wire was very popular in the '50s, and still makes sense for general hook-up wire. No stripping is required, and the insulation can be slid back right up against the soldered connection.

I'm not sure if fabric-insulated wire is good for winding coils. Seems like varnish-insulated wire would be better.

For all: just a note that magnet wire is usually enameled, not varnished, as varnish is organic and is affected by water. Some special magnet wires for motor use were "glass" coated in the 1940s and 1930s using a special scientific coating. To-day there are many other special coatings for motor and high temperature use, such as teflon.

As for using magnet wire with cloth, this hogs space, but is a benefit to many applications. For radio work, it keeps the wires farther apart, which sometimes is necessary for capacitance purposes. The main benefit of cloth covered magnet wire is that it is more durable. In old transformers of many years ago and electric motors (such as those in brass bladed fans), the cloth tends to keep the wires from abrading. Should the enamel crack and break through, there is still cloth to keep things from touching. The wire mass in transformers and motors is often varnished, which helps keep the wires in place, and the cloth in place. Certain motors and transformers with this cloth outer wrap can take more overheating because even though the enamel may melt or crack through, the cloth is still between the wires.

Thomas