Wire Gauges Question

[dtengineering]

Originally Posted by Mike AA

The issue with that is going to a store or online and saying you want 6.54 kcmil (#12 AWG) wire. You're not likely going to find it and they're going to look at you with an odd look. If you get larger wire (250kcmil) they're easier to find in the kcmil or mm measurements.

We Americans are stubborn.

Yeah, you'd probably get the same sort of looks that the Aussie teams do when they ask for 1/4" bolts. Something like this:

I have to admit, though, you'd have a hard time finding metric-spec wires in Canada. Turns out that although we're officially metric here, our largest trading partner is... how did you say, "stubborn"? Even my lab is stocked with 20Ga wire and #4 nuts.

This results in some occasional mis-translation... occasionally with interesting outcomes. Most of our furnaces at work are old enough to be in farenheit. I was doing a lab where I wanted to solution heat treat some 6061.... so I set the furnace to 775 degrees.

But oops... that was the NEW furnace. Thankfully (safety first!) no one was hurt, and there was only minor damage from the unexpectedly molten aluminum.

The new furnace is now labelled "degrees C", and my students will forever remember the difference between 775F and 775C.

I guess if we can be officially bilingual, we can be unofficially biunital, too.

Biunital? Really? I just typed that?

Jason