A Heads Up . . . .
A reader contacted me late last week asking about the
suitabilty of Mil-W-5086 wire in his project . . .
seems he stumbled across a supply of this wire as
surplus roll ends from a CURRENT military production
contract.
I haven't heard that number tossed around in years. This
WAS one of the wire types we used back in the 60's but
I seemed to recall that it was obsoleted when Mil-W-22759
and it's other "tef" cousins came on line. I've researched
the specification and my recollection is correct . . . the
specs were obsoleted about 1983 and prohibited use on any
new aerospace application.
Now . . . 5086 wire is basically PVC insulated. It comes with
several combinations of pvc primary, fiberglas braid and can
include a nylon over-jacket. There's another wire of that
era known as Mil-W-16878 type B which is very similar.
The wire is rated at much lower temperatures (typically
105-120C) than modern wires. It's also subject to loss of
plasticizers which makes the outer nylon jacket subject to
cracking. The stuff is still found in thousands of Cessnas
flying around out there but hey . . . . even if the wire
was free, the impact to total cost for using modern wire
versus PVC on your project is trivial.
I recommend the older wire styles be avoided even if they're
FREE . . .
Regards,
Bob . . .
AeroElectric Connection
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