Showing posts with label 18 Gauge Wire. Show all posts
Showing posts with label 18 Gauge Wire. Show all posts

Tuesday, February 14, 2012

Spt-1 Wire Vs. Spt-2 Wire.

Spt1 vs Spt2 wire
Spt-1 on Top, Spt-2 on bottom
18 gauge wire is found pretty much everywhere, almost every house and office in the country has some that is used for power cords on products and for those of us in the lighting industry it's the standard for C7 and C9 light line. The wire come in generally two varieties Spt-1 and Spt-2. These are both 18 gauge wire, that means that the copper wiring on the inside of the wire itself is the same. The main difference is the insulation!

On the left the photo shows both Spt1 (top) and Spt2(bottom), as you can see Spt-2 wire has almost double the amount of insulation. This added protection lets you run more power through the wire itself.


Spt-1 wire can handle up to 7 amps, or 770 watts.
Spt-2 wire can handle up to 10 amps, or 1100 watts. 

Using that information will let you evaluate your power needs, be sure to never exceed the recommended amperage this WILL cause the wire to fail and be a potential hazard.
Click here to check out our rolls of 18 gauge wire!
Click below to read more.

Monday, January 17, 2011

Restoring your Christmas Displays


The Holiday season can put some major wear and tear on Christmas Displays. Bulbs break and burn out, UV rays wear our plastic, Clips come loose or break and after multiple seasons your displays may look a little lackluster. Wear and tear is a natural thing and happens from use and even when you move them to storage. We get calls on a regular basis if we do restoration work for displays, we have brought old displays to life. We completely restored a intricate angel tree topper for Dollywood in Pigeon Forge, TN. But typically it's cheaper for the customer to do the restoration themselves.

If the display just needs bulbs replaced we suggest ordering all new bulbs, old bulbs don't burn as bright as new bulbs and it's obvious once the displays is on a lit that certain bulbs are new and some are old. We sell both Incandescent bulbs and LED, LED bulbs will cost more up front but save you money in the long run because they use such little power and their hard plastic bulbs are much harder to break.
Displays that are lit with Mini lights or small LED usually use Sculpture Clips to attach the sockets to the metal frame displays. These clips can come loose and get lost or break. If you're missing clips we have three different sizes in Black and White that are perfect for fixing up your Light displays. They come in 1/8", 3/16", and 1/4" sizes. The size of a sculpture clip reflects the size of the opening that will clip on the displays frame. You can easily measure your displays frame diameter with a crescent wrench and a ruler, simple slide the wrench onto the frame and tighten it down, slide it off them measure the opening and viola you have your size.

If you are lighting your display with C7 or C9 bulbs you will have to use 18 gauge wire with sockets on it. Replacing this wire is a fairly simple job. Remove all the existing wiring, and if you are so inclined now is the perfect time to wire brush and paint your frame ( a couple coats of a quality spray paint will work fine, just allow it to dry fully before wiring). There are a couple ways to secure the wire/sockets. You can use electrical tape to tightly wrap the sockets and wire to the frame, but always cut the electrical tape with scissors or a knife, pulling the tape causes it to stretch and after time it shrinks back to normal and will come loose. Another option is using zip ties. Both of these methods will take a long time so be patient and don't rush! The more you pace yourself and do it right the longer before you have to do it again!

I hope this gives you some insight into how you can go about restoring Christmas Displays!

--
Zach

Wednesday, August 13, 2008

DIY Christmas Lights extension cords...

Getting power to your light strings can be somewhat of a pain. If you use cords you buy at a department store chances are you're going to have cords that are to long or to short and your left thinking, "Wouldn't it be awesome if I could make my own cords". We here at All American Christmas Co know first hand the hassle of dealing with using large bulky cords for a couple strands of lights.

Rolls of 18 gauge bare wire are perfect for making your own custom Christmas light extension cords. We have them in 100 and 500 foot cuts in both white and green wire. We have both in SPT-1 and SPT-2 wire and offer some rolls in 16 gauge size. When you combine these rolls of these our Quick Connect plugs you can make almost any length cord for your lighting project. Check out the digram below to see just how easy it is to use our Quick Connect slide on plugs with our Bare Wire rolls.



You can also modify the slide on Female plugs to make a DIY Power Strip. Click here to see how to make them.

Visit our Clips and Electrical Supply page to see all our Rolls of wire and plugs.