buying enameled / magnetic wire

[made2hack]

Hello,

So I'm buying about 2Kg of 2mm (12 AWG) diameter enameled wire tomorrow. Since I'm already at the suppliers', I was wondering what other AWG would you recommend I pick up?

I know that everyone will ask how much Amps I will be putting through, I don't know what to answer. The reason I am picking up the 2mm wire is that I want that to go in a bench power supply and be able to handle up to 10A.

As for some other wire to pick up, it doesn't have to handle that much. What would you recommend as a good all around wire to have in case I need to wind some wire? Would 18AWG be good? 22Awg?

Thanks,

[made2hack]

Ok,

My calculations were somewhat off. I was not taking into account the area of the copper cross section. So, I will actually be buying 1.05mm wire (AWG 18) for my needs.

[mzzj]

You will have fun trying to wind bobbins with 12AWG. If its for SMPS magnetics 24,26 and 30AWG are what I ussually use and copper foil.

I would consider buying also 0,5mm and 0,25mm diameter wires. Hard to say what you actually need but above 1mm I often end up using several parallei wires for various reasons and thinner than 0,25mm is more tricky to handle and I'll try to avoid smaller than that.

[T3sl4co1l]

If you'll be doing much with transformers or inductors, I'd recommend a selection from 18 to 30-some AWG.  You can choose large intervals (like 18, 24, 30, 36) since you can always connect finer strands in parallel...(and sometimes there are very good reasons to prefer to do so!).

Tim

[made2hack]

thanks guys.

i ended up buying 2kg of 1mm and 1/2 kg of 0.5.

Even the guy selling told me not to bother with diameters less than 0.3mm as they will snap very easily.