Re: What am I missing? – QD19 spark

[legendre]

quote Mumbles:

Retracing my steps, I remembered the first replacement wire cracking a bit as I unwound it from it’s roll. It was the last few turns on the roll and I figure the cracking I heard was the strands inside breaking from being straightened after being tightly rolled up for so long.

Did you ultimately verify if that was the case – that is, broken core strands? That would have to be a pretty dang old reel of wire, for the inner conductors to break as it was unwound. Now, if there was a lot of corrosion going on inside, that’s one thing – but absent that, copper doesn’t normally embrittle just sitting still in a reel of wire.

If anything, I’d think the ‘cracking’ you heard was one or more insulation layers, as plastic & rubber are much more likely to perish just sitting around for years on a shelf.

Oh.. and not to get too pithy, but if sense were common, we’d all have it! 😉