Uses for wire cutoffs - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / general

author: watchmaker
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: February 16, 2025, 12:20:11 am
content: I just realized the silicone insulation of wire cutoffs makes great insulation for through hole component leads.

author: Smokey
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 16, 2025, 02:16:57 am
content: Just embrace your inner horder like me and keep all the little wire cutoffs in a bin. You never know when you will need a 1in piece of wire! Who knows, 50 years from now the copper might be worth some serious money on it's own!

author: coppercone2
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 16, 2025, 02:18:19 am
content: that can go into a trash can.I like to use translucent teflon tubing / sleeve.https://www.ebay.com/itm/384925376916

author: Buriedcode
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 16, 2025, 05:14:48 am
content: Quote from: Smokey on February 16, 2025, 02:16:57 amThis post is both reassuring, and worrying at the same time. I too have a small box of "bits" that aren't even components, just wire cut offs and scraps.

author: ledtester
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 16, 2025, 05:29:06 am
content: Quote from: Smokey on February 16, 2025, 02:16:57 amAdd to that the cut leads of discrete LEDs!

author: RoGeorge
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 16, 2025, 06:43:57 am
content: Don't worry, everybody has "bits" boxes with LED cutoffs and stripped wire isolation.Lately I don't isolate the terminals any more, but did that a few times. The green tube is wire isolation:heat-shrink tube was not yet a thing, because the year was 1982, as written on the PCB:That PCB was to be an intercom, and yes, I still have it.To this day in 2025, 43 years later, it is still unfinished.

author: TERRA Operative
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 16, 2025, 06:49:00 am
content: Quote from: RoGeorge on February 16, 2025, 06:43:57 amOne of us. One of us. One of us.

author: Analog Kid
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 16, 2025, 07:02:35 am
content: Quote from: TERRA Operative on February 16, 2025, 06:49:00 amI call my place The House of Unfinished Projects.

author: 5U4GB
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 16, 2025, 07:26:28 am
content: Quote from: Smokey on February 16, 2025, 02:16:57 amAnd just as you're about to fund your retirement from your stash you discover 90% of it is CCA...

author: 5U4GB
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 16, 2025, 07:39:56 am
content: Quote from: RoGeorge on February 16, 2025, 06:43:57 amIt's not unfinished, you're just... pacing yourself. Rabdarea e ca mierea :-).

author: AVGresponding
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 16, 2025, 11:07:43 am
content: Quote from: Buriedcode on February 16, 2025, 05:14:48 amI'm confused; doesn't everyone have (at least) one of these..?

author: coppercone2
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 17, 2025, 02:56:45 am
content: noI won't save crap unless its a few inches long and substantial value (i.e. teflon), and if it won't straiten out, definitely going to throw it away even if its a foot long, because I don't keep bananas in the lab.Buying a bunch of different wires as a laboratory cost (like buying a multi meter) and organizing it is far superior then being a wire scrooge/forest bird

author: Analog Kid
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 17, 2025, 03:57:56 am
content: Oh, give me a f'ing break: I'll bet most of us save stuff like this (does that make us "hoarders"? who gives a fuck?)It comes in right handy when you need it.

author: TERRA Operative
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 17, 2025, 04:52:56 am
content: Quote from: AVGresponding on February 16, 2025, 11:07:43 amI call my storage box 'My Desk'

author: Smokey
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 17, 2025, 05:37:21 am
content: Quote from: Analog Kid on February 17, 2025, 03:57:56 am... well you never know when you willneedthe newspaper from august 10th 1976 either, so might as well keep it around!

author: Berni
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 17, 2025, 06:47:06 am
content: I don't quite save wire cutoffs this short, but i do have a box of random wires that range from 10 to 20cm. Comes in useful when you just need a short piece of wire to connect something up for a quick test.Even more useful is collecting the cutoff troughhole pins. I have a plastic cup filled with them and they come in useful every so often, be it for shoving into connectors or for making bridges.

author: coppercone2
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 17, 2025, 07:14:02 am
content: component leads are alot more interesting because you end up with some pretty exotic parts sometimes.While stocking heat shrink and sleeves is a no brainer, getting various gauges of whatever those leads are would be hard, however having an assortment of thin brass rods is a good start, but it might not be a total substitute, because there are so many types of component leadsBut keep in mind, it might be bad for the circuit, if you don't pay attention and use steel jumpers or something inappropriate for the situation. But no one can argue that solid metal cylinders are not 'stockroom worthy' parts lolI suggest sorting them with a magnet and miliohm meter

author: Xena E
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: February 17, 2025, 08:40:17 am
content: Quote from: RoGeorge on February 16, 2025, 06:43:57 amShoulda warmed that board up George when you drilled it and wiped some candle grease over it.😁All this hoarding is why our children will despise us when we croak.X

author: TERRA Operative
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 17, 2025, 11:15:10 am
content: Quote from: Xena E on February 17, 2025, 08:40:17 am"You want your inheritance? Sell off all this crap when I die!"

author: coppercone2
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 17, 2025, 05:55:04 pm
content: Quote from: TERRA Operative on February 17, 2025, 11:15:10 amincluding the curated collection of micro 'round stock'

author: BurningTantalum
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: February 18, 2025, 03:08:51 am
content: Some decades ago we bought a house where the elderly previous owner had passed away. We had to clear out most of the stuff left, and one item was an old tobacco tin with a fabric sticking plaster label written in shaky biro: 'BITS OF STRING TOO SHORT TO BE OF USE'. My partner has never forgotten this and keeps a close eye on me...

author: EPAIII
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 24, 2025, 07:52:40 am
content: I only keep the scraps of solid wire, tinned solid wire at that. I use them for short jumpers on breadboards. The rest gets binned. And some of the solid stuff too. You can't collect everything - like my mother did.She saved bacon grease, newspapers, shopping bags, everything. When I left home to join the Army, my baby crib was still in my brothers' bedroom, filled to overflow with a genuine, archeological "dig" of clothing items that no longer fit us. I swear, my baby clothes were at the bottom of that heap. I wouldn't be surprised if they wound up in my son's dresser - I never asked either my wife or mother. I didn't have the courage. Now that I think of it, I wonder if her baby clothes were also there.I'm only marginally better. I finally got rid of my collection of half good tubes. Some chap in California now has them. But somewhere I still have a CK722 transistor. I bought it new and it's gonna be worth a fortune one day, mark my words.

author: westfw
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 25, 2025, 02:34:06 am
content: QuoteAnd you save the little pieces of silicone/fiberglass insulation using to insulate leads inside CFL and LED lightbulbs that you've dissected, too. Right?

author: Analog Kid
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 25, 2025, 02:41:13 am
content: Quote from: westfw on February 25, 2025, 02:34:06 amI do.When you need 'em, you need 'em.And what are you going to do, order a whole roll of the stuff from DigiKey or whoever?Takes almost nothing to store them. (Another drawer in a parts cabinet.)

author: CatalinaWOW
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 25, 2025, 05:00:19 am
content: Save a small stock, a couple of dozen. Use is primarily for a small diameter relatively robust probe to clear plugged holes of various sizes. I have carbide drills that are similar diameters, but they are both to fragile and too expensive to use for this kind of stuff.

author: RJSV
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 25, 2025, 05:52:46 am
content: (OT). Analog Kid, your reply#22 the tuning picture has an uncanny 43-D illusion. That strip of heat shrink tubing appears to be up, floating just above the container!I like to pay attention, to how or what conditionscause the slight loss in the certainty of position. It appears to be just slightly above the plastic bin. The other heat shrink part looks ok, to be located (normally).I like to speculate, how a decent illusion achieves that, nebulous advantage!

author: RoGeorge
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 25, 2025, 05:59:43 am
content: For unplugging the solder out of holes, I've found wood toothpicks to be working even better than pieces of wire.When unplugging melted solder using bits of wire, the solder might stick on the wire, while a wood toothpick can be inserted then rotated. Surprisingly, the wood does not carbonize or burn, same toothpick can be used to unplug many soldering holes before becoming damaged.https://hackaday.io/project/7574-the-devil-is-in-the-detailsMelt the solder, keep the soldering iron on the pad, then stick the tip of the toothpick into the hole while removing the solder iron from the pad. The wood will change it's colour, but the same toothpick can be used many, many times.It works especially well for single sided through-hole PCBs.

author: CatalinaWOW
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 25, 2025, 02:55:27 pm
content: Quote from: RoGeorge on February 25, 2025, 05:59:43 amTotally agree for solder plugs. But I find lots of other needs for hole clearing.

author: eutectique
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: February 25, 2025, 03:32:46 pm
content: Quote from: RoGeorge on February 25, 2025, 05:59:43 amDo you stash them in a box between uses ?

author: RoGeorge
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 25, 2025, 04:13:23 pm
content: No, but I clean my workebenches only very rare, once in a blue moon.So it is not uncommon to find components and bits and leftovers from weeks ago still sitting somewhere on the bench, and to reuse that. Whenever I need a wire cutoff, or a toothpick, or a 1k or a low power npn, etc., chances are there is one already somewhere on the desk. But sometimes it is not, and had to go to the stash and pick more parts that will eventually land on one of the workbenches, waiting for weeks to be put back into their boxes.Most often the workbench is eventually swiped into a big tray, or an ice cream box, to be sorted later. Except I never find time to sort that and put the parts back, so I end up with a lot of scrap boxes full of all kinds of components and other items.The fun part is, with time you'll forget about them and what items sits where, and 10-20 years later you open such a scrap box, and find inside long forgotten ICs, projects since you were a kid, or other kind of personal treasures you don't even remember what they were, or where did they came for.

author: 5U4GB
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 26, 2025, 11:23:12 am
content: Quote from: eutectique on February 25, 2025, 03:32:46 pmMarked "BITS OF WOOD TOO SHORT TO BE OF USE"?

author: RoGeorge
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 26, 2025, 12:04:10 pm
content: Quote from: 5U4GB on February 26, 2025, 11:23:12 amWell, that would be OCD, not ADD.OCD == Obsessive Compulsive Disorder: very organized, sorts and labels everything, completes every task on timeADD == Attention Deficit Disorder: very disorganized, starts too many project ideas at once, never finishes anythingI think you guys are suspecting me of the wrong disorder here.

author: basinstreetdesign
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: February 28, 2025, 05:51:44 am
content: Quote from: RoGeorge on February 16, 2025, 06:43:57 amHuh? I was using heat shrink tubing in 1977 and I'm sure it had been around for a few years even then.

author: coppercone2
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 28, 2025, 05:56:27 am
content: I bought assortments of sleeve in basically every gauge because this thread made me scared I had 3 now I have them all, 30 to 10for some reason this thread started making me think of 'land of the pharohs"

author: Zoli
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: February 28, 2025, 06:21:36 am
content: Quote from: basinstreetdesign on February 28, 2025, 05:51:44 amIn 1982 behind the iron curtain heat shrink tubing doesn't existed - I was there.

author: Xena E
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: February 28, 2025, 06:34:05 am
content: Originally introduced by Raychem in 1962. Invented in the 1950'sFirst common appearance in electronics must have been sleeving for electro capacitors perhaps?I've seen 80s equipment with "stretch over sleeves" so heat shrink wasn't common then even ?X

author: eutectique
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: February 28, 2025, 12:49:17 pm
content: Quote from: Xena E on February 28, 2025, 06:34:05 amNo, not even in nuclear-related establishments. The closest functional analog was PVC tube soaked in acetone for several minutes until swollen enough, pulled over, and let dry. Been there, got a t-shirt.