This is a multi-part message in MIME format. ---------------------- multipart/alternative attachment Hi Julia: Wire gauges can be confusing as hell. Most wire in industry is = designated with AWG (American Wire Gauge, also known as Brown & Sharpe = Gauge). This is used for electrical wire as well as steel wire. = Different sources will tell you that the American steel industry is = switching, or has switched, to the "U.S. Steel Wire Gauge" system and = electrical wire is switching to decimal diameter, but when you order = wire, all you seem to ever see is AWG. There are also obsolete gauge = systems like Birmingham Gauge and Stub's Gauge, but you rarely encounter = them. In the UK, they have other systems. Music wire has its own gauge system (don't ask me why) and it always = has. McMaster-Carr is just dumbing it down for your average boob by = calling it out in AWG. It is a common engineering material and is not = used only for piano strings. It is basically an extremely high tensile = strength, high carbon steel wire. It is used extensively in the = manufacture of springs. In fact, most ordinary springs are available = only in music wire or stainless steel.=20 The only thing that I can guess that might be different between music = wire from Schaff and music wire from McMaster-Carr is the finish. Wire = is produced by drawing (pulling it through a hole) and different = finishes can be accomplished by how this is done and by treatment after = drawing. There are "bright" finishes, "matte" finishes, "soap drawn" = finishes, etc. I'm not sure if these finishes would have any effect on = the sound of the string...it doesn't seem like they would. And for all = I know they have the same finish anyway. The biggest problem I can see = with using the industrial wire is that it isn't usually available in = half-gauges.=20 Don A. Gilmore Mechanical Engineer Kansas City ----- Original Message -----=20 From: Alpha88x@aol.com=20 To: pianotech@ptg.org=20 Sent: Friday, January 30, 2004 8:41 AM Subject: AWG vs. Music Wire Size greetings, When I look in a McMaster Carr catalog I see that .031 = diameter wire (ASTM A228 spring carbon steel wire which the catalog = refers to as music wire) is 20AWG. However, in the Schaff catalog .031 = diameter is size 13. Why are music wire sizes different from AWG? Is it just that Piano supply houses want to confuse us = tuners into purchasing their wire at nearly three times the price or = what? Has anyone ever ordered wire from another (cheaper) source than = the piano supply houses? rookie, Julia Gottchall, Reading, PA ---------------------- multipart/alternative attachment An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: https://www.moypiano.com/ptg/pianotech.php/attachments/ce/21/ed/42/attachment.htm ---------------------- multipart/alternative attachment--
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