Twisting wires

[Flying Scotsman]

Anyone have a good reference for how to twist a pair of wires together (in this case, for a serial line)?

TIA!

Steve

[SteinAir]

Take two wires, string them out and have a friend either hold one end or squeeze them in a vice or otherwise secure them to something. Simply put the other ends of the wires in a cordless drill, tighten down the chuck and commence to twisting until the wires are have twisted to their desired density. Slightly over twist them as the wires will have a tendency to partially unwind.

This will work with very short wires, or if you have the space very long ones!

Fast and easy, plus you can do it yourself.

Cheers,
Stein

[jbagley]

Seems like safety wire pliers would work also. Haven't tried, but can't think of any reason it would be different than the drill motor approach.

[Flying Scotsman]

Originally Posted by SteinAir

Take two wires, string them out and have a friend either hold one end or squeeze them in a vice or otherwise secure them to something. Simply put the other ends of the wires in a cordless drill, tighten down the chuck and commence to twisting until the wires are have twisted to their desired density. Slightly over twist them as the wires will have a tendency to partially unwind.

This will work with very short wires, or if you have the space very long ones!

Fast and easy, plus you can do it yourself.

Cheers,
Stein

Any "tricks"? My experiments with this (w/ about a 15' long pair) tended to "untwist" almost to the point of not being twisted at all.

How DO you guys at SteinAir get such pretty twisted pairs?

[Walt]

Originally Posted by Flying Scotsman

How DO you guys at SteinAir get such pretty twisted pairs?

Don't know about Stein but I buy them that way

[Lars]

Originally Posted by Flying Scotsman

Any "tricks"? My experiments with this (w/ about a 15' long pair) tended to "untwist" almost to the point of not being twisted at all.

How DO you guys at SteinAir get such pretty twisted pairs?

Over-twist. I've done it many times now. One end of the pair goes in the bench vise, the other in the drill chuck (tighten by hand is plenty). Have at it. As Stein wrote, they will untwist some. If yours are untwisting all the way, you didn't make them tight enough to begin with

[Flying Scotsman]

Originally Posted by Walt

Don't know about Stein but I buy them that way

Yeah, well, that's not much help in this case, or I wouldn't have asked the question, would I?

[larosta]

We have twisted 100's of feet of various wire sizes, lengths, number of conductors, and insulation types using Steins method. The over-twist is important.

You may also want to use your fingers to localize the twist starting at one end and moving to the other end as you build the twists. That is,
secure the one of the ends of the wire bundle in a vise. Secure the other end of the bundle in the cordless drill chuck. Set the drill to the slow range. Hand the drill to a friend and have them put tension on the bundle. Place your fingers near the drill chuck and squeeze the wire bundle so the twist occurs near your fingers. Have your friend start the drill rotating and as the wire twist forms slide your fingers along the wire towards the vice end until you have the length and pitch of twisted wire that you want.

[SteinAir]

The "trick" and where some fail is to make sure BOTH wires are secure in the drill chuck....smash them suckers in there good & tight and count on ruining an inch or two at each end. If you're only spinning one wire, then you'll have problems.

While we order almost 2 dozen different twisted pairs, triples, quads, etc., in 10,000' spools, you'll still see our techs twisting up their own custom wires when they need 'em. Takes only a few minutes to do it once you get the hang of it.

Cheers,
Stein

[comfortcat]

Are you twisting together a serial "signal" line? Like RS-232 type signal? I believe that spec requires shielding. You might want to buy pre-twisted with shield for that.

You are near Whiteman. We (co-builders) normally work Saturdays or Sunday (Sunday this week)

Stop by. PM for info.

Dkb