General purpose hook up wire

**Colin Barron** · 04-02-2021

I was looking for 0.75mm sq and 1.0mm sq hookup wire and was surprised to find only rs pro made in the UK but they don't say by whom. Rapid do unistrand which was cheapest.
What makes do people use now? Any opinion on RS pro or Rapid unistrand?
Thanks
Colin

**molliemilo1** · 05-02-2021

Use Tri rated single core flex,designed for panel wiring and available from TLC Electrical.Other distributors are available.This is what I used on my Bridgeport EZI TRAK rebuild.

**Clive S** · 05-02-2021

Originally Posted by Colin Barron

I was looking for 0.75mm sq and 1.0mm sq hookup wire and was surprised to find only rs pro made in the UK but they don't say by whom. Rapid do unistrand which was cheapest.
What makes do people use now? Any opinion on RS pro or Rapid unistrand?
Thanks
Colin

This company https://chaloncomponents.co.uk/produ...i-rated-cable/

will even sell it by the mtr.

**Neale** · 05-02-2021

It's times like this that you miss Maplin in the High Street...

**magicniner** · 05-02-2021

Originally Posted by Neale

It's times like this that you miss Maplin in the High Street...

Now I'm sad, I miss my local Maplins, a visit was one of the better aspects of weekly shopping.

**Doddy** · 05-02-2021

Wow!, Maplin in later years was well out of my price range for hook-ups (mind you, I live close to CPC (kinda a cheap relation to Farnell, and used to have a trade counter open Mon-Sun) - so for the price of parking in town and the exorbitant price of Maplins, it would be cheaper travelling the couple of miles to CPC and buying by the reel.

OP: CPC, Farnell, RS are all good (though RS can be stupidly priced). My wire-rack of multi-stranded at 20AWG through 28AWG is all from Rapid - at the time I was in the market for their soft silicone high current stuff.

No particular thoughts on unistrand.

**Colin Barron** · 05-02-2021

I prefer to buy made in UK where possible and locally. I rang Doncaster cables technical who said their main outlets are 'Yes' a company they own, RS Components, Electric Centre and Tool Station. I rang the local branch of YES.
0.75mm sq tri rated single core 24/0.2 £16 inc vat
1.00mm sq tri rated single core 32/0.2 £20.06 inc vat.

**Kitwn** · 06-02-2021

Element14, formerly Farnell, are another possibility. As one of the members on this forum points out in their signature, if you didn't buy it from China the company you bought it off probably did.

**Colin Barron** · 06-02-2021

Originally Posted by Kitwn

Element14, formerly Farnell, are another possibility. As one of the members on this forum points out in their signature, if you didn't buy it from China the company you bought it off probably did.

Doncaster cables manufacture in the UK. I don't know where the 8mm copper rod comes from or for that matter where the copper is mined, but we can only go so far.

**Muzzer** · 06-02-2021

I usually check CPC before going to Farnell. They have been part of the same group for many years and even share the same website software and many of the product lines. Bizarrely, you can often obtain the exact same products from the same manufacturer from CPC at a fraction of the price.

Although in this example the manufacturer is slightly different, you can see an almost identical product (1.5mm2 black 100m) from CPC at half the price of Farnell.

https://cpc.farnell.com/Search?store...=&st=tri-rated

https://uk.farnell.com/w/search?jack...-&st=tri-rated

Although CPC doesn't carry as many lines as Farnell and they also carry a lot of tat, it's worth checking them first for stuff like this. Same goes for things like crimps, conduit, connectors, heatsinks, cables etc.