dratomic Posted June 28, 2005 Share Posted June 28, 2005 Well... NEW green wire, presumably, doesn't get stiff and then crack. Sure, when it's 50 years old, okay. But doesn't other colored wire suffer the same problems? I'm just surprised that wire manufacturing companies declared green wire the pariah of the wire world. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joe K. Posted June 28, 2005 Share Posted June 28, 2005 Close, but no cigar:http://www.bulkwire.com/product.asp?ProdID...7588&CtgID=6578It's not easy being green! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
H.I. Gosses Posted June 28, 2005 Share Posted June 28, 2005 Anything toy-ish was not expected to live longer than 2 years max. (And most probably didn't) The wire you would buy now is meant for industrial uses or model trainsoutlays, so probably of a better quality. Plastics have not stood still in the intervening period either. And on top of that, when the replacement wire on my doorrobot starts to get brittle when I am 107 (50 years from now), I think I can live with that.The plastic insulation suffers greatly,-looses elastomers-, when heated. I wonder, as the manufacturers used the cheapest copper wire, if there was not quite some resistivity in the wire. ' specially if you stalled the robot. If the wire goes to 45 centigrade regularly it would cook the insulation already. The batteries could, momentarily, give 3-4 amp's. That is enough to heat the wire considerably. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tinluver Posted June 28, 2005 Share Posted June 28, 2005 The proper Zip cord double strand wire is like gold.Nobody has the right thing.even the toy co. replacements look like crap.It kills me to put these repro wireson toys that cost $100's to $1000's.When I really need it I will watch ebay for bargain vintage battery toys.If you can find good wire I think its worth it to keep the intergrity of the toy.I remember sending out a Drummer and a Radar robotyears ago to be rewired.When I got it back I couldn't believe how bad it looked.I would think the toy co's would tell you how different it will look before they tear your toy apart!OK got that off my chest:)With a good collectible toy do you think you are better off with a original brittle wire or a replacement that looks like one?? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Robotnut Posted June 28, 2005 Share Posted June 28, 2005 On the left is the TTT repro Radar and the original is on the right.The new wire is thicker and lighter in color, but the actualgauge of the wire is the same. It is possible after 50 years theinsulation has shrunk and darkened due to the liberation of theelastomers. That new plastic smell is the solvents leaving thematerial. The new wire smells and the old doesn't. I have nothowever tried the "taste test". As Joe mentioned, the DollarStore wire is of a smaller gauge, so the repro wire is likely thebest you can do. Since this new wire it still liberating solvents,you may not want to leave it in contact with vintage litho.Boy, I got to find something to do tonight... :rolleyes: P.S. Old battery op dogs may be another source of the "proper" wire...P.S. again, Personally I'd rather leave the original wire on...www.robotnut.com Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dratomic Posted June 28, 2005 Share Posted June 28, 2005 The wire on my Flashy Jim is a mere thought away from snapping. It was originally left coiled up, and has "frozen" that way. Any attempt to unwrap it -- heck, any attempt to even THINK about unwrapping it -- will result in a whole bunch of little wire bits. I was tempted to replace it, if a suitable donor came along. But then I thought, it's in one piece now (sort of) so I may as well leave it. The toy works (as long as I'm REALLY careful) and it looks fine(ish). If it ever breaks on its own, then I'll consider a replacement. Until then, I'll leave well enough alone. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Russell Posted June 29, 2005 Share Posted June 29, 2005 couple of thoughts....The repro lantern actually has painted green wire so it will not be as close to original 22 gauge green Zip lock as you may thinkI know this because me repro has slightly damaged wire entering the body and you can plainly see white cable underneath. To unscramble hard or brittle wire.I found gently warming the wire for a couple on mins with a hair drier makes it soft and flexible enough to reposition or uncurlRt Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David Kirk Posted June 29, 2005 Share Posted June 29, 2005 Doh! My new lantern has white stuff on the wire too, and I just assumed it was junk spilled on it, not paint worn off. So these guys obviously don't know where to get it either! All that careful craft and the thing they can't get right is the crummy wire. I've considered the poodle solution too, and I have bins of the little beasts, but either they're kind of cute and I can amuse my girls with them, or the wire already seems too iffy to stick on my valuable robots. Why is it that poodles have more flexible wires than robots anyway? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Morbius Posted June 29, 2005 Share Posted June 29, 2005 The wire on my Flashy Jim is a mere thought away from snapping. It was originally left coiled up, and has "frozen" that way. Any attempt to unwrap it -- heck, any attempt to even THINK about unwrapping it -- will result in a whole bunch of little wire bits. I was tempted to replace it, if a suitable donor came along. But then I thought, it's in one piece now (sort of) so I may as well leave it. The toy works (as long as I'm REALLY careful) and it looks fine(ish). If it ever breaks on its own, then I'll consider a replacement. Until then, I'll leave well enough alone. Kudos to your suggestion Dr. A. ... Blue Planet works fine even with a slightly brittle wire, just ultra careful to 'walk' the wire coil along with the 'bot! ;) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MetalRobotHead Posted June 29, 2005 Share Posted June 29, 2005 couple of thoughts....The repro lantern actually has painted green wire so it will not be as close to original 22 gauge green Zip lock as you may thinkI know this because me repro has slightly damaged wire entering the body and you can plainly see white cable underneath. Just had a look at my repro Lantern and theres white showing where the green paint is coming off, had a look back at roboz's comparison between original and repro it shows white appearing. Bit disappointing, just have to be careful handling the cable. <_< Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SH MIKE Posted June 29, 2005 Share Posted June 29, 2005 (H.I. Gosses Posted: Jun 28 2005, 03:26 PM) Also, when I used to fool around with off-set presses we had a abysmal agent calledrubber reconditioner. This brought compacted rollers back to life. Something similar existed for typewriter rolls. It also worked wonders on hardened flexes. Who used to service typewriters??I did.It's called FEDRON...... http://www.fedron.com/home.php Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fineas J. Whoopie Posted June 29, 2005 Share Posted June 29, 2005 Henk- are you suggesting that this rubber re-conditioner might work on plastic wire insulation? That would be great if it did. It seems to me that there are several other toy robot maintenance applications for a rubber re-conditioner - the rollers for the space scene on a my Alps TV spaceman that have hardened and now work only sporadically come to mind. And by the way, the white that you see on the repro Lantern robots cords isn't wear. It's actually a white film on the surface of the green cord. You can just scratch it off with your fingernail. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joe K. Posted June 29, 2005 Share Posted June 29, 2005 ...the white that you see on the repro Lantern robots cords isn't wear. It's actually a white film on the surface of the green cord. You can just scratch it off with your fingernail. Right, FJW. It's the styrofoam that Lantern comes packaged in. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sonny Young Posted June 29, 2005 Author Share Posted June 29, 2005 I can see that I'm not the only one with this problem. I'm disappointed to learn that Lantern Robot has painted wires. Jeez. Seems like it would have been cheaper to have the wire made right, than to repaint existing wire. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sonny Young Posted June 29, 2005 Author Share Posted June 29, 2005 SH, I missed that last post. Glad to see it's real green wire, so it must be available some place. The question is WHERE? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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