My comment wasn’t about the existence of limp wire, but about it being called “wet noodle wire”, which is what I searched for. Other than that single manufacturer who registered that as a trademark for their wire, nobody seems to call it that.
The wire is so-called "wet noodle" in the model airplane hobby and is sold under a variety of other names.
Doesn't that make it clear "wet noodle" or "noodle" was jargon in a particular sport/hobby? I purchased mine in the early part of this century
Yes, and I could find no evidence of it being common jargon in that particular hobby (nor in any other context, for that matter). Except for that one trademark, and the rare descriptive “… like a wet noodle” I couldn’t find even one example of the usage you claim.
Clearly, a search reveals the terms still are used to refer to very flexible wire.
A search revealed nothing of the sort. On the contrary, I found even less mention than I expected. My hope in searching was to discover additional types of ultra-limp wire; unfortunately the result revealed nothing new, but also that your claim of the term seems to be unsupported.
And as mentioned, it is not always silicone. The wire I have is probably not silicone. The fact you only looked at silicone wire that is used frequently for powering electric models doesn't mean those terms cannot or never did apply as jargon to other wire sizes and insulations.
Umm, I never said or did any of that!
I did not search for silicone wire at all. The exact search query I put into Google was
"wet noodle" wire -deans -retriever -fishing. The exclusion terms were to exclude the manufacturer which trademarked the name, and the “wet noodle” tool another manufacturer makes for fishing cables through walls.
The Deans Wet Noodle™ wire is a particular brand of high-strand silicone-insulated wire, one they happen to only sell in one gauge.
The fact that I specifically mentioned insulation types other than silicone should be a hint that I didn’t “only [look] at silicone”. Did you even read my reply with any modicum of care?
Daburn was one producer of it, and in the period mentioned, it was not described as silicone insulation. The Daburn site still claims,
Daburn specializes in flexible wire, ranging from ultra flexible sub-miniature wire to high voltage wire.
However, it's minimal volumes are/were more than most hobbyists would want and probably why there were secondary sellers like FMA Direct.
I’m familiar with Daburn, they make all kinds of wild and wacky wires and cables. (I recently ordered wire from them that is rated for both 250°C operating temperature and 50kV. Either of those characteristics alone is fairly easy to find, but both of those properties in one wire is very exotic.)
So I don’t doubt that they make something limp. But they don’t call it “wet noodle”, and other than Deans, no one else appears to, either.
If it were a common term in RC (or any other hobby), I would expect the phrase to turn up on forum discussions, etc. But except for the brand name, nothing. Zilch. Nada. Certainly nothing supporting it being common jargon in the hobby.
The reason this matters is that a reader wanting to find limp test lead wire for their micrograbbers, following your hint to look for “wet noodle wire”, is going to find
absolutely nothing relevant, since 12AWG is way, way, way too fat for this purpose, and that’s the only thing that comes up.
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