Sourcing small quantities of multi-color wires

[helloworld922]

The one thing that irks me about purchasing wires is they usually come in long spools all with the same color, for example 50 or 100 ft.

What I'd really like is a few feet of several different colors I can use in my prototypes, preferably 22-24 AWG solid wire.

I've found a few different helpful hints about where to look, I'm just curious as to how you guys usually come by your wires.

1. Get a jumper wire kit (something like this). Great for breadboarding and stuff (I actually have one). Not the that cheap of a solution if I need a good amount of wires, though.

2. CAT 5/6 Ethernet cables. Fairly cheap, can get several feet of this stuff for a few dollars, or free if you happen to know some contractors. Get 8 different colors/patterns.

[Laogeodritt]

RobotShop has 25-foot spools of 22AWG solid wire. Not a huge variety of colours, but the common ones are there and at a pretty decent price (I think; I haven't actually compared to bulk prices).

[SeanB]

Find a telephone technician and get an offcut of multipair phone cable, that will give at least 20 colours and striped ones. Up to a 400 pair cable is possible without any repeat of a colour coding on the cable. That is 800 wires to use, with half being either a solid colour and the rest being striped. Phone cabling is 22AWG solid copper wire ( in most cases unless you have old aluminium shyte cable) and is good quality, often being tinned copper.

[Psi]

I had a similar issue located 24 uniquely identifiable wire color/markings.
Ended up buying 24 pair cable and just pulling off the outer covering.
It turned out to rip off with little effort and was cheaper than buying 24 small single conductor reels since very few suppliers carry 24 different colors

[marcusone]

Find a telephone technician and get an offcut of multipair phone cable, that will give at least 20 colours and striped ones. Up to a 400 pair cable is possible without any repeat of a colour coding on the cable. That is 800 wires to use, with half being either a solid colour and the rest being striped. Phone cabling is 22AWG solid copper wire ( in most cases unless you have old aluminium shyte cable) and is good quality, often being tinned copper.

Great idea...

what about solid CAT6 (23awg) cable? that gives 8 colours.

[SeanB]

Cat5/6 cable is pretty much the same as phone cable, and if you can get an offcut of a multidropper you will find a lot more in terms of colours. Hard to find though.

[helloworld922]

RobotShop has 25-foot spools of 22AWG solid wire. Not a huge variety of colours, but the common ones are there and at a pretty decent price (I think; I haven't actually compared to bulk prices).

:O

That is probably the cheapest I've seen rolls of wires! I might have to order myself a roll of each.

Find a telephone technician and get an offcut of multipair phone cable, that will give at least 20 colours and striped ones. Up to a 400 pair cable is possible without any repeat of a colour coding on the cable. That is 800 wires to use, with half being either a solid colour and the rest being striped. Phone cabling is 22AWG solid copper wire ( in most cases unless you have old aluminium shyte cable) and is good quality, often being tinned copper.

Like the idea, I wonder what the prices for purchasing small lengths of phone cabling is (since I don't happen to know any technicians)...

[SeanB]

Just find one working in the neighbourhood and politely ask, worst that can happen is you will be told no. Otherwise phone your local telco and ask when the next auction is, or which scrapyard they use.

[ptricks]

CAT 5 or 6 cable usually doesn't work too well. The wire itself is okay but the insulation usually will not tolerate heat so if you want to solder any of it, expect the insulation to melt.
The really good wire is the copper wire that is either tin or silver coated . There are a couple sellers on ebay that buy it in bulk and sell 25 feet per bid.
Can usually be found for about $2-$4 for each color .


The other sources for wire are hit and miss , sometimes you can get decent wire from old cables but often now it is steel wire, not copper.

edit:
This is who I have bought wire from in the past, 50ft is about $5 per roll + shipping, I ordered 3 colors and with shipping it was about $19. It is the good stuff too.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/50ft-Solid-Tinned-Copper-22-awg-Blue-wire-300V-/121042260352?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item1c2eae5180

[mariush]

Farnell (Newark.com in US) sells wire by the meter but for most items, you have to order in multiples of 5 meters

There's quite a lot of ribbon cables that are multicolor but in general they're limited to 10 base colors.

For example: http://uk.farnell.com/amphenol-spectra-strip/135-2406-310/ribbon-cable-3c-10-core-per-m/dp/1301024

But you really have to play around with the number of wires in the ribbon and the quantity to get the best value for money.

What else I could suggest.. since you're in US you should have access to some of those stores with overstock, excess parts, surplus and whatnot ... I remember Dave did a video with him visiting Apex Electronics when he was on your land: 

http://www.apexelectronic.com/bulk-wire

Maybe you can give them a call and see what they can do for you?

[helloworld922]

Farnell/Newark only offers the ribbon cable for shipment from the UK, which is an added $20 freight charge to ship to the US, though ribbon cable might not be a bad place to look for some more "exotic" varieties like striped patterns and such...

I found that Jameco sells hook-up wire packs which come with 6 rolls of 25 ft 22 AWG solid wire. They have more reasonable shipping charges than RobotShop offers me (~$5 vs. ~$10).

I also found JPM Supply which sells the individual 25 ft rolls like RobotShop and they have 10 different colors available. I've never heard of them before, but they are based out of Houston, TX. Anyone have any recommendations on this hobby electronics supplier?  it looks like they order in bulk then re-package into smaller quantities.

[JoannaK]

I have managed to salvage the rainbow-colored ribbon cables from various projects and use those when I need 10 different color wires.. Those cables are more flexible than solid core wires, but at the same time a bit more difficult to solder etc..

[mazurov]

Any old printer cable contains plenty of variably colored stranded wires. They are good quality and some even have good heat resistant insulation. Cisco router cables are good source for colored wires too as well as any other telco brand ( V.35, V.24 are good). Old KVM cables are another source.

[codeboy2k]

Spend one day dumpster diving and grab printers, photocopiers and fax machines. 
You will get multi-color ribbon cable, multicolor bundles of 22 up to 18 awg wires, plus motors if you care for those.