Source of fine wire

05/31/2008 Source of fine wire
I have been using wire from old Märklin motor coils for wiring up small LED lights.

One of the coils I have been using has black wire and all the others have the typical copper colored wire. I have thus been using the black wire in areas where the wire may be visible.

Today during tidying operations in the workshop I came across some old power supplies that I had kept for scavenging parts and decided to take the parts I may need and throw the rest out. I cut out bridge rectifiers, big diodes and resistors, etc. (if their wires are long enough to be reused). I tried to break off a relay and the it broke revealing a nice coil... more nice fine wire. I decided to harvest some more coils and in one I came across the finest wire I have ever seen... it came out of a 24V DC Omron relay and the part number enabled me to find the data sheet - and the coil information on the data sheet says the wire is rated for 21.8 mA! This will be ideal for LED circuits. The wire feels like human hair...

I tried to take pictures of the wire alongside the Märklin motor coil wire.... The big black wire is the Märklin coil wire, the copper wire the wire from the Omron relay.

Here is the Omron relay housing...

The Märklin coil...

A coil from the induction charger circuit from a Braun electric toothbrush...

and some other coils...

So, don't bother buying fine coil wire, just break open some old electric appliances, use brute force to break open the relays and you have plentiful free coil wire...