fine strands vs coarse strands in stranded wire?

[ledtester]

I've noticed that some of the heavier gauge wire (14 AWG on up) is made of a lot of very fine strands and others consist of fewer larger diameter strands.

Are there any differences between the two one should be aware of?

[The Soulman]

For the same wire gauge:

More and thinner strands is a more flexible cable.
Less and thicker strands is a cheaper cable.

Can't think of much else.

[coppice]

For the same wire gauge:

More and thinner strands is a more flexible cable.
Less and thicker strands is a cheaper cable.

Can't think of much else.

As well as greater flexibility, its far harder to fracture fine strands when tightly bending the cable.

[rstofer]

The fine strand wire is normally marked as Machine Tool Wire (MTW) and is used when building, wait for it..., machine tools.  Control panels and such.

The heavy strand wire is usually considered building wire.  The kind of thing that gets installed in conduit and runs from breaker panels to receptacles, for example.

The fine strand MTW is usually tinned.  Not always, but mostly.

[IanB]

It's much harder to strip the insulation from fine stranded wire without taking some strands with it. For obsessive personality types that can be very frustrating.