Undersized Wires

Guest
I bought some zip wire on eBay that should have been 18 gauge. It seemed a bit undersized so I measured it and it wasn't even 20 gauge. Later I bought some 16 gauge zip wire and it was also undersized. Then I realized it was from the same US supplier. So I ordered 14 gauge wire from them and you know what happened. Now I've got 12 gauge zip wire on order and will see what the gauge is. The 14 gauge wire has the supplier's name and gauge on the insulation, so they can't claim they didn't know it is undersized.

The 14 gauge wire is made up of about 46 strands of 0.006" strands. I measured them with a micrometer to be sure I was getting a good reading. Multiplying the area by the number of strands gives and area half way between 17 and 18 gauge. I see an 18 gauge stranded with 41 each of 34 gauge strands which is pretty close to this. So there is no way this can be considered even close to 14 gauge wire.

I put in to return the 16 gauge wire and I simply got a return shipping label from eBay with no reply. I guess they know the wire is undersized and so few return the wire they don't care.

I'm wondering if this rises to the level that the state would be interested in prosecuting? They are in Maryland, so I had the most recent order shipped there so it could be considered an in state purchase. Once I receive it I will contact the attorney general and see if they are interested. This one vendor likely is raking in hundreds of thousands of dollars and maybe millions on this.

--

Rick C.

- Get a 1,000 miles of free Supercharging
- Tesla referral code - https://ts.la/richard11209
 
On Saturday, May 4, 2019 at 10:58:57 AM UTC-4, gnuarm.de...@gmail.com wrote:
I bought some zip wire on eBay that should have been 18 gauge. It seemed a bit undersized so I measured it and it wasn't even 20 gauge. Later I bought some 16 gauge zip wire and it was also undersized. Then I realized it was from the same US supplier. So I ordered 14 gauge wire from them and you know what happened. Now I've got 12 gauge zip wire on order and will see what the gauge is. The 14 gauge wire has the supplier's name and gauge on the insulation, so they can't claim they didn't know it is undersized.

The 14 gauge wire is made up of about 46 strands of 0.006" strands. I measured them with a micrometer to be sure I was getting a good reading. Multiplying the area by the number of strands gives and area half way between 17 and 18 gauge. I see an 18 gauge stranded with 41 each of 34 gauge strands which is pretty close to this. So there is no way this can be considered even close to 14 gauge wire.

I put in to return the 16 gauge wire and I simply got a return shipping label from eBay with no reply. I guess they know the wire is undersized and so few return the wire they don't care.

I'm wondering if this rises to the level that the state would be interested in prosecuting? They are in Maryland, so I had the most recent order shipped there so it could be considered an in state purchase. Once I receive it I will contact the attorney general and see if they are interested. This one vendor likely is raking in hundreds of thousands of dollars and maybe millions on this.

--

Rick C.

- Get a 1,000 miles of free Supercharging
- Tesla referral code - https://ts.la/richard11209

Check the wire. Another scam is to use copper plated aluminum.
Just scrape the wire with your pocket knife and see if the color is copper or not. Very common for wire sold as " speaker wire ".

Dan
 
On Saturday, May 4, 2019 at 11:28:10 AM UTC-4, dca...@krl.org wrote:
On Saturday, May 4, 2019 at 10:58:57 AM UTC-4, gnuarm.de...@gmail.com wrote:
I bought some zip wire on eBay that should have been 18 gauge. It seemed a bit undersized so I measured it and it wasn't even 20 gauge. Later I bought some 16 gauge zip wire and it was also undersized. Then I realized it was from the same US supplier. So I ordered 14 gauge wire from them and you know what happened. Now I've got 12 gauge zip wire on order and will see what the gauge is. The 14 gauge wire has the supplier's name and gauge on the insulation, so they can't claim they didn't know it is undersized.

The 14 gauge wire is made up of about 46 strands of 0.006" strands. I measured them with a micrometer to be sure I was getting a good reading. Multiplying the area by the number of strands gives and area half way between 17 and 18 gauge. I see an 18 gauge stranded with 41 each of 34 gauge strands which is pretty close to this. So there is no way this can be considered even close to 14 gauge wire.

I put in to return the 16 gauge wire and I simply got a return shipping label from eBay with no reply. I guess they know the wire is undersized and so few return the wire they don't care.

I'm wondering if this rises to the level that the state would be interested in prosecuting? They are in Maryland, so I had the most recent order shipped there so it could be considered an in state purchase. Once I receive it I will contact the attorney general and see if they are interested. This one vendor likely is raking in hundreds of thousands of dollars and maybe millions on this.

--

Rick C.

- Get a 1,000 miles of free Supercharging
- Tesla referral code - https://ts.la/richard11209

Check the wire. Another scam is to use copper plated aluminum.
Just scrape the wire with your pocket knife and see if the color is copper or not. Very common for wire sold as " speaker wire ".

Yeah, they label the wire as either copper or copper clad. Are you saying they tell you it's copper but sell you copper clad?

--

Rick C.

+ Get a 1,000 miles of free Supercharging
+ Tesla referral code - https://ts.la/richard11209
 
On Sunday, May 5, 2019 at 9:41:47 AM UTC-7, gnuarm.de...@gmail.com wrote:

> Yeah, they label the wire as either copper or copper clad. Are you saying they tell you it's copper but sell you copper clad?

'They' covers lots of anonymous suppliers. I wanted some bronze wire (not for
decoration, for a spring) and after some poking into stores, found that oodles of
'bronze' wire is sold for crafts, that's bronze-painted aluminum or copper with a patina.

There was an old stash of bronze music wire somewhere in my dusty cabinets, so that
was what I used. It's a real caveat emptor situation (note: NASA just found out that
faked materials burned up a few hundred million bucks worth of satellite lauches).
 
Another useful test will be nearing the cable (powered off)
with a magnet, on some little appliances
the cable is attracted by the magnet (coppered iron)

delo
 
On Monday, May 6, 2019 at 2:50:44 AM UTC-4, delo wrote:
Another useful test will be nearing the cable (powered off)
with a magnet, on some little appliances
the cable is attracted by the magnet (coppered iron)

delo

Which reminds me, the bronze wire brushes sold by Harbor Freight are plated steel.

Dan
 

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