Source for very thin wire

A model railroad company called Detail Associates sells straight lengths of brass wire in foot-long lengths, packaged in plastic bags by the dozen.  I don't remember the smallest diameter in the line, but I think it it's smaller than .005".  It's fairly common stuff in hobby shops that cater to model railroaders.  On the web, I'm pretty sure the big railroader's supply firm, Walthers' (www.walthers.com) carries it.

If the wire doesn't have to be brass, a good, cheap way to get hold of really fine stuff is to buy some twisted electrical wire and untwist it.  The stuff that's used for such things as stereo earphone cords (the little tiny ones that are used for portable CD players, for instance) is incredibly fine copper wire.

Hope that helps a little.  Good luck.

Later edit:  I checked the Detail Associates listing on the Walthers site.  The smallest diameter brass wire I could find is .006."  I also checked the Small Parts, Inc. catalog.  No luck there either.  Sorry about that.  Anybody else got any better ideas?

Powder Monkey, 

Thank you for that website.   They have some reasonaby priced copper wire in both .003 and .004 sizes which should meet my needs.  I had purchased some 1/192 scale photoetched railing stanchions from Tom's Modelworks to use on a project and yesterday I discovered the only thing I had that was small enough to pass through the tiny holes in these stanchions was a hair from my head.  The Detail Associates .006 wire that jtilley mentioned works great with the Bluejacket stanchions I have used in the past, but was too large for these and some .005 wire I had would not work either.

Check the fly tying shops & online stores for fly tying silk.

A trick I learned from Don Pruel of J&D Productions, a professions ship modelmaker, was to use fly tying silk to run the lifelines between individual PE stanchions

http://www.jdproduct.com/

My initial response in this thread (or maybe we should say, this wire?  Sorry.) was based on the specific mention of brass wire.  For lifelines, something softer probably would be just as good - if not better. 

I've got a spool of nickel-chromium wire, about .002 in diameter, that a friend found in a military surplus store about 25 years ago.  I have no idea how many hundreds of yards are left on it - probably enough to last me the rest of my life (which is just as well, since I also have no idea where to find any more of it).  It's really nice stuff for applications that don't require it to be particularly stiff.  I used it for the ratlines on the model of the frigate Hancock that's show in my avatar; it's soft enough to tie in a clove hitch, but stiff enough to be shaped so it looks like it's sagging between the shrouds.  I suspect individual strands from the earphone wires I mentioned earlier would work as well, or nearly so.

I would actually prefer to use a stiff wire for this application as it imparts a usefull degree of strentgh and rigidity to a pretty delicate assembly.  I originally asked about brass wire because that's what I have used it in the past, however brass is apparently not available under .006" so I guess I will give the copper wire a try.  

A great source for ultra-thin wire is defunct electronic equipment - small solenoids, speaker coils, radio antenna coils etc.  Can't always be certain exactly what you'll get of course.  It's also enamelled for insulation though whether that affects its usefulness I couldn't say, but at least it's free.

Michael 

steves wrote:

Does anyone know of a source, preferably in the US, for very thin brass wire-.004" or thinner?

I know you want wire for the strength and rigidity for the part you are working on, so my comment won't apply for that application, although, the item I'll mention fits the very thin requirement.

"Invisible Thread" by Sulky (you can get it at sewing, craft, or quilt stores) comes in several colors, is very thin, pretty strong, and looks prototypically small down into 1/700 scale or so, for a lot of rigging purposes.

Thanks very much to everyone who responded to my question about thin wire.  I ended up ordering two rolls of copper wire of .003" and .004" from the website that Powder Monkey suggested.   I had thought that the .004" would work, but it turns out that the holes in these PE stanchions are so small that even that was too large so I was glad I had ordered the .003" wire, which does work.

Hey Steve, I have some old blinker solenoid switch type thingys that I 'collected' when I was working at a semi truck salvage yard that I will give you. They have very fine copper wire in them, just about the diameter you need. PM me if you want them, and we can exchange info.

 Henry

Another update on thin wire-there is a company called Ngeneering which sells .004" rigid staiinless steel wire in 9" lengths.  Available through the Walthers railroad catalog. 

hwells-Thank you very much for the kind offer.  I now have rolls of .003" and .004"wire, both over 4,000 feet, so I probably won't need any more wire in this lifetime.

Steve

Your welcome

Henry