CCFL´s wires tipes..???

[Marcal]

I am about to start building an Enterprise D from AMT (scale 1:650) and I want to add CCFL in the warp nacelles. The pilons for these nacelles are very thin (2.9 milimeters) and, on the other hand, the wire from the CCFL to the inverter is "very thick" (1.3 milimeters).

I already know that it is not wise to elongate these wires, but somebody knows if I can simply cut them and substitute them for a thinner ones ?

if it is so, it would make this ship much more easy to build... if not, I will do it anyway...

Thanks everyone !!

[Pat Amaral]

Consider getting the Galaxy PE Trench Cover for Wires from Don's Light & Magic. Scroll down to the third item on the page.

By the way, a 1/650 Enterprise D would be a pretty large model. Almost 39" long in fact. The larger of the only two AMT kits produced was 1/1400 (or there about).

[Sparky]

I think you might put the inverter in the ship, one inventer may power two tubes, the wires from the inverter output can be smaller, they carry high frequency, high voltage signals with low power. (BTW it will shock you if you touch them but it didn't kill me when we put the neon rope in the J-57 space station).

[Marcal]

I will, definitively, put the inverter inside the secondary hull. There is plenty of room in there. The problem is that I have to drill very deep guides for the wires from the hull to the nacelles. I would like to change the wires for a similar ones (lenght) but thinner, so that I can drill the guides easily. I know that I can not chage the lenght of these wires, but can I change the thickness ???.

Thanks you all,

[Sparky]

You can even try brass strip/foil, try a test length first, basically you can flatten the wire so that a thick wire carriers the as much current as the same wire smashed flat. This is true to a point, supper thin and you will have problems laying it down with out stressing/tearing the foil, and these stress points will have higher resistance than they should.

Just try the length and thickness on the bench before cutting into the model to be sure they work.

Also brass or nickel-plated photo etch is best since you can solder right to them, scrap brass from photo etch can be used, I have used copper tape, but you might not find this (we have it at work).

Here's some copper tape, power is connect at both ends, for redundancy:
http://www.kc6sye.com/images/images_05_ ... c_dckd.jpg

The connections were made by drilling a small hole through the end of each rail. The wire was stripped, very small wire, and soldered down was flat as I could manage, then a bit of brass from some photo etch leftovers, was tined on one side (small amount of solder) then that side was laid down on top of the wire end and heated with the soldering iron pining in place until the solder squeezed out. This protected and connected the wire end. Hiding the solder joint.
http://www.kc6sye.com/techmages_5_4_04_e.html