Power cable labelled as 18 gauge, NOT!

[Lightages]

Here in Chile I dragged along a bunch of parts and things from Canada. These included many different power cords with IEC connectors and North American plugs. When I need to have a power cable for something I just cut off the plug and put on a new plug for Chile.

I had two of these from different old equipment and needed to make a couple for Chile. They both labelled as 18 gauge. One was as expected, the other not even close. The wire inside maybe is 22 gauge, and it is not even copper! It appears to be multistranded steel and maybe, not sure, copper coated.

So the next time you have problems with a piece of equipment that seems to get voltage sags under load, this could be one of the reasons.