An easy way to think of this is, the American wire gauge sizes wire the same way shotgun shells are sized . A 28 gauge shotgun shell is smaller than a 12 gauge. Smaller the wire, bigger the number till you reach about 4/0 then its calculated in circular mills. Example . If you take a 1" hole in a piece of steel, you can get 14 #14 wires through it at the same time, same size hole with#10 wire will only fit 10 wires. Same size hole will only take 2 #2 wires. #2 wire has an O.D of .258 in and 2/0 has an O.D of .365 in . This is for the bare copper size and doesn't include various insulation types.
Cable Size Vernacular
- Thread starter queenpictoria
- Start date
MisterSandals
Participation Medalist
Wow, i learned something today. Thanks!
Technically it has to do with die sizes required in manufacturing, but i think that was an easy to understand example.
MarkSolar
Solar Enthusiast
There used to be just awg sizes that started at 0, so:
0,1,2,3 etc
Then they were able to manufacture larger wire so they needed a number smaller than 0. The choice they made was to keep adding zeros for larger wire size:
0000, 000, 00, 0, 1, 2, 3 etc
0,1,2,3 etc
Then they were able to manufacture larger wire so they needed a number smaller than 0. The choice they made was to keep adding zeros for larger wire size:
0000, 000, 00, 0, 1, 2, 3 etc
Wow. AWG is a measuring scale. Kinda like inches. As the gauge number goes smaller, the diameter of the conductor gets larger. There is a 2 AWG cable, it is much smaller than 2/0 AWG cable. The numbers are not interchangeable. It is either 2 awg or 2/0 awg. No ifs. So 18 awg is smaller than 14 awg. 12 awg is smaller than 8 awg. At some point they needed smaller than 1 awg so they invented 0, 00, 000, 0000. Easier to print 4/0.
Our metric friends do not have that problem.
Trying to cover some more questions. Gauge is what it has been explained. I have not heard the term OT and only know it as extra pay when I was in the Salt Mines. Here in the Abattoir it is work 'til done.
Good luck with your growing knowledge. It is an exciting field. Ask if you need more.
Our metric friends do not have that problem.
Trying to cover some more questions. Gauge is what it has been explained. I have not heard the term OT and only know it as extra pay when I was in the Salt Mines. Here in the Abattoir it is work 'til done.
Good luck with your growing knowledge. It is an exciting field. Ask if you need more.
But a 12 gauge shell is much larger than a 12 gauge wire. There is a interesting short read in Wiki. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_wire_gauge
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