NOS Western Electric wire used for power cables??

Actually I live with 4 cats and 2 dogs...all rescues.

E-mail me and I'll be happy to share photos with you.

As for the "short debate" I believe we were talking apples and oranges and that is why we disagreed to some extent.

There is no comparison between the way 50 year old NOS wire(meaning NEW old stock as in "like new" vs. "not used")and 50 year old wire in an older home or vintage gear will react.

There is also QUITE a difference in potential dangers in worn house wiring, worn wiring in vintage gear, and power cords or extension cords (being new, NOS, or whatever).

Old house wiring and vintage gear wiring are hidden and often surrounded by flammable materials such as dust. They are also stationary and usually don't become dangerous unless they are moved.

Unless you re-wire an old house or vintage gear even the most brittle of insulation is still quite effective. It's when we bend and move wires that the brittle insulation becomes a short or spark gap situation.

OK...rodents have been known to chew on things and move things around but rodents are my cat's responsibility.

Extension cords and power cords are usually moved around and flexed. The act of doing this will usually move/crack the fatigued insulation and cause a short that would trip a breaker rather than heat the wire to the point of combustion.

Do a search on electrical fires and you will see that it is RARELY a cord that catches fire but a wall outlet that is filled with decades of dust that shorts out, heats up, and bursts into flame.

Once again, these things have nothing to do with products I sell or NOS wire in general. They have to do with worn out insulation or using a wire or connector beyond its rating.

I can show you wire that's less than 5 years old and UL listed that has cracked and potentially dangerous insulation as well as 50 year old wire that has been inside of a component and is in near new condition.

I think we all got a bit off track with this thread.

Is NOS wire good?

Some is and some isn't depending on the wire and the end use.

Is NOS wire safe?

Once again, it depends on the condition of the specific wire and the end use.

Is UL listing important?

Mostly to insurance companies.

UL standards do not mean a product is safe but only that it meets certain criteria that would make it suitable for use in SPECIFIC situations.

New and modern UL listed wires and connectors are every bit as potentially hazardous as NOS or vintage wires if they are not used as they are intended.

Going back to my original point in my first posting: if you don't know what you are doing you shouldn't mess with electrical components or devices.

This means new, NOS, UL listed, blessed by the Dhali Lama, or approve by Ms. Cleo the psychic.

Fuzzbutt17

Actually I live with 4 cats and 2 dogs...all rescues.

Coolness!

One of mine I got from my neice's friend whose cat had kittens. One I got from a rescue shelter. And the other two I adopted as stray/abandoned. Looks like I may be taking on another when my loser neighbor across the street gets booted out of their house. I'm already buying food for it.

One dog. Also a stray/abandoned.

As for the "short debate" I believe we were talking apples and oranges and that is why we disagreed to some extent.

Well, you weren't getting what I was referring to by "higher resistance" that much is certain.

There is no comparison between the way 50 year old NOS wire(meaning NEW old stock as in "like new" vs. "not used")and 50 year old wire in an older home or vintage gear will react.

Nothing I had said regarding shorts had anything specifically to do with your wire, NOS wire, or any other wire in particular. It only related generally to how shorts can occur and cause sufficient heating to potentially cause a fire.

I'd only cautioned previously against using the cloth insulated Western Electric wire for power cords. Your wire's not cloth insulated. It's rubber insulated. While it may have a cloth covering, I consider the primary insulation to be rubber. The wire I was talking about uses cotton as the wire's primary insulation.

After plugging these Mojo power cords into my system, it was a very cool thing to hear musical details come through that weren't there with more expensive power cords. Very cool, indeed. (o:

Cloth insulated WE wire was for low voltage signal, not for AC (as you probably know).

IMHO it also doesn't sound as good with wide bandwidth signal since it was optimized for mid/voice transmission.

The WE speaker wire is about the same. I used it for years with full range speakers but it too is not wide bandwidth and tends to sound a bit cloudy with a rolled off top end.

It can be a good cure for "digititus."

Please keep in mind that I'm speaking in ABSOLUTE terms and that both the silk/enamel covered signal wire as hook up/IC wire and the speaker wire are exceptional values if you get the right "vintage" at the right price.

Much of their popularity was originally based on them being SO inexpensive and music being narrower bandwidth than it is today.

At their current pricing there are much better options IMHO.

Now you know why my company only sells NOS wire power cords and not other products made from NOS wire. I can buy modern wire that sounds better for the same or less $$$ and I can buy all I want rather than hunting around the world for scraps.

Soon enough we'll no longer be making NOS wire power cords since I can barely find 30' of the specific wire I've been using and people that have it for sale want too much for it. I have a good inventory of AC wire but at the rate I'm selling power cords it won't last for too many years.

There are SO many variations of these NOS wires...plated with this or that....shielded with this or that...wax or enamel coated...etc, etc, etc.

I don't recommend people thinking they can simply buy something off of eBay and they are good to go. Most of the wire I've seen for sale on eBay is not the "right" vintage.

Much like with tubes, people hear about "chrome tops" or "black plates" or "halo getter" or whatever and they think they are getting the famous vintage they've read so much about and they are not.

As they say: "Let the buyer beware."

That being said, if anyone wants a "grab bag" of different gauges and types of WE solid core hook up wire I would be happy to sell it to them very cheaply. These were the wires I used for R&D but ended up going with modern wires instead.

For $50 I'll gladly give anyone that wants it a bag of coils of different "vintages" of WE solid core wires that would sell on eBay for 5X that price. You'll be saving me the trouble of listing them individually.

Ben, I think it would be redemptive to educate people on the theoretical advantages of the WE copper processing....