[[music_wire]]
Show pagesource
AdminRecent ChangesSitemap

Table of Contents

MUSIC WIRE GAUGE CHART

Here is where I summarize all of the wires I have

Precision Brand Music wire

AMOUNT lbs NO in/mm AWG
10/0 .0015/.0381 46
9/0 .0020/.0508 44
8/0 .0025/.0635 42
7/0 .003/.0762 40
6/0 .004/.101 38
5/0 .005/.127 36
1/4 4/0 .006/.152 34
1/4 3/0 .007/.178 33
1/4 2/0 .008/.203 32
1 1/0 .009/.229 31
1/4 1 .010/.254 30
1/4 2 .011/.279 29
1/4 3 .012/.305 28
1/4 4 .013/.330 37
1/4 5 .014/.356 27
1/4 6 .016/.406 26
1 7 .018/.457 25
1/4 8 .020/.508 24
1/4 9 .022/.559 23
1 10 .024/.610 23
1/4 11 .026/.660 22
1/4 12 .029/.737 21
1/4 13 .031/.787 21
1/4 14 .033/.838 20
1, 1/4 15 .035/.889 19
1, 1/4 16 .037/.940 19
1/4 17 .039/.991 19
1/4 18 .041/1.041 18
1/4 19 .043/1.092 18
1/4 20 .045/1.143 17
1/4 21 .047/1.194 17
1/4 22 .049/1.245 17
1 23 .051/1.295 16
1 24 .055/1.397 16
1 25 .059/1.499 15
1/4 26 .063/1.600 15
1/4 27 .067/1.701 14
1, 1/4 28 .071/1.803 14
1 29 .075/1.905 13
1/4 30 .080/2.032 12
1, 1/4 31 .085/2.159 12
1/4 32 .090/2.286 11
1, 1 33 .095/2.413 11
Missing 34 .100/2.540 10
35 .106/2.692 10
Missing 36 .112/2.845 9
37 .118/2.997 9
38 .125/3.175 8
39 .130/3.302 8
40 .138/3.505 8
41 .146/3.708 7
42 .154/3.912 7
43 .162/4.115 6
44 .170/4.318 6
45 .180/4.572 5

AWG stands for Standard Wire Gauge

All large sizes of music wire are made by Precision Brand.
I have some wire by Malin Wire Specialists- 4/0, 1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 8, 11, 14, and 25
I have two wires made by Schaff Roslau Stahldraht 3/0 and 2/0

Precision Brand is C1085 Spring Steel
Malin is C1080 Spring Steel
1085 Tensile Strength Range: 245,000 - 455,000 PSI
1080 Tensile Strength Range: 98,625 - 335,037 PSI 1)

the two alloys vary with the amount of carbon and manganese 2) 3)

Alloy Carbon Manganese Phosphorous Sulfur
1080 0.75-0.88 0.60-0.90 0.030 max. 0.050 max.
1085 0.80-0.93 0.70-1.00 0.030 max. 0.050 max.

As you can see the acceptable ranges for each overlaps, meaning the wires have the potential to almost identical in composition

Fishing Line/ Weed Whacker line Measurements

Have LB in/mm
YES 4 .008
YES 6 .009
8
10
YES 12 .013
15
YES 20 .0185?
YES 25 .0185
YES 30 .023
40
YES 50 .029
60
70
YES 80 .031/0.80
90
100
120
YES 130 .039/1.00
150
200
250
300
YES .050
YES .065/1.7
YES .080
NOTES

Each material of the weed whacker line or the nylon fishing line has an individual alloy. This means that they may not have identical material properties.

AMERICAN WIRE GAUGE CONVERSION CHART

4)

AWG Gauge IN MM per in per cm kcmil mm2 mΩ/m mΩ/ft A A A ~10s 1s 32ms
0000 (4/0) 0.4600 11.684 2.17 0.856 212 107 0.1608 0.04901 195 230 260 3.2 kA 33 kA 182 kA
000 (3/0) 0.4096 10.405 2.44 0.961 168 85.0 0.2028 0.06180 165 200 225 2.7 kA 26 kA 144 kA
00 (2/0) 0.3648 9.266 2.74 1.08 133 67.4 0.2557 0.07793 145 175 195 2.3 kA 21 kA 115 kA
0 (1/0) 0.3249 8.251 3.08 1.21 106 53.5 0.3224 0.09827 125 150 170 1.9 kA 16 kA 91 kA
1 0.2893 7.348 3.46 1.36 83.7 42.4 0.4066 0.1239 110 130 145 1.6 kA 13 kA 72 kA
2 0.2576 6.544 3.88 1.53 66.4 33.4 0.5127 0.1563 95 115 130 1.3 kA 10.2 kA 57 kA
3 0.2294 5.827 4.36 1.72 52.6 26.7 0.6465 0.1970 85 100 115 1.1 kA 8.1 kA 45 kA
4 0.2043 5.189 4.89 1.93 41.7 21.2 0.8152 0.2485 70 85 95 946 A 6.4 kA 36 kA
5 0.1819 4.621 5.50 2.16 33.1 16.8 1.028 0.3133 - - - 795 A 5.1 kA 28 kA
6 0.1620 4.115 6.17 2.43 26.3 13.3 1.296 0.3951 55 65 75 668 A 4.0 kA 23 kA
7 0.1443 3.665 6.93 2.73 20.8 10.5 1.634 0.4982 - - - 561 A 3.2 kA 18 kA
8 0.1285 3.264 7.78 3.06 16.5 8.37 2.061 0.6282 40 50 55 472 A 2.5 kA 14 kA
9 0.1144 2.906 8.74 3.44 13.1 6.63 2.599 0.7921 - - - 396 A 2.0 kA 11 kA
10 0.1019 2.588 9.81 3.86 10.4 5.26 3.277 0.9989 30 35 40 333 A 1.6 kA 8.9 kA
11 0.0907 2.305 11.0 4.34 8.23 4.17 4.132 1.260 - - - 280 A 1.3 kA 7.1 kA
12 0.0808 2.053 12.4 4.87 6.53 3.31 5.211 1.588 20 25 30 235 A 1.0 kA 5.6 kA
13 0.0720 1.828 13.9 5.47 5.18 2.62 6.571 2.003 - - - 198 A 798 A 4.5 kA
14 0.0641 1.628 15.6 6.14 4.11 2.08 8.286 2.525 15 20 25 166 A 633 A 3.5 kA
15 0.0571 1.450 17.5 6.90 3.26 1.65 10.45 3.184 - - - 140 A 502 A 2.8 kA
16 0.0508 1.291 19.7 7.75 2.58 1.31 13.17 4.016 - - 18 117 A 398 A 2.2 kA
17 0.0453 1.150 22.1 8.70 2.05 1.04 16.61 5.064 - - - 99 A 316 A 1.8 kA
18 0.0403 1.024 24.8 9.77 1.62 0.823 20.95 6.385 10 14 16 83 A 250 A 1.4 kA
19 0.0359 0.912 27.9 11.0 1.29 0.653 26.42 8.051 — — — 70 A 198 A 1.1 kA
20 0.0320 0.812 31.3 12.3 1.02 0.518 33.31 10.15 5 11 — 58.5 A 158 A 882 A
21 0.0285 0.723 35.1 13.8 0.810 0.410 42.00 12.80 — — — 49 A 125 A 700 A
22 0.0253 0.644 39.5 15.5 0.642 0.326 52.96 16.14 3 7 — 41 A 99 A 551 A
23 0.0226 0.573 44.3 17.4 0.509 0.258 66.79 20.36 — — — 35 A 79 A 440 A
24 0.0201 0.511 49.7 19.6 0.404 0.205 84.22 25.67 2.1 3.5 — 29 A 62 A 348 A
25 0.0179 0.455 55.9 22.0 0.320 0.162 106.2 32.37 — — — 24 A 49 A 276 A
26 0.0159 0.405 62.7 24.7 0.254 0.129 133.9 40.81 1.3 2.2 — 20 A 39 A 218 A
27 0.0142 0.361 70.4 27.7 0.202 0.102 168.9 51.47 — — — 17 A 31 A 174 A
28 0.0126 0.321 79.1 31.1 0.160 0.0810 212.9 64.90 0.83 1.4 — 14 A 24 A 137 A
29 0.0113 0.286 88.8 35.0 0.127 0.0642 268.5 81.84 — — — 12 A 20 A 110 A
30 0.0100 0.255 99.7 39.3 0.101 0.0509 338.6 103.2 0.52 0.86 — 10 A 15 A 86 A
31 0.00893 0.227 112 44.1 0.0797 0.0404 426.9 130.1 — — — 9 A 12 A 69 A
32 0.00795 0.202 126 49.5 0.0632 0.0320 538.3 164.1 0.32 0.53 — 7 A 10 A 54 A
33 0.00708 0.180 141 55.6 0.0501 0.0254 678.8 206.9 — — — 6 A 7.7 A 43 A
34 0.00630 0.160 159 62.4 0.0398 0.0201 856.0 260.9 0.18 0.3 — 5 A 6.1 A 34 A
35 0.00561 0.143 178 70.1 0.0315 0.0160 1079 329.0 — — — 4 A 4.8 A 27 A
36 0.00500 0.127 200 78.7 0.0250 0.0127 1361 414.8 — — — 4 A 3.9 A 22 A
37 0.00445 0.113 225 88.4 0.0198 0.0100 1716 523.1 — — — 3 A 3.1 A 17 A
38 0.00397 0.101 252 99.3 0.0157 0.00797 2164 659.6 — — — 3 A 2.4 A 14 A
39 0.00353 0.0897 283 111 0.0125 0.00632 2729 831.8 — — — 2 A 1.9 A 11 A
40 0.00314 0.0799 318 125 0.00989 0.00501 3441 1049 — — — 1 A 1.5 A 8.5 A

NOTES

2025/09/18 16:43Wesley Hicks


for metal tube sizes see metal_tubes
for zither pins and other tuning pins see tuning pins

Large online conversion chart (doesn't include precision brand, but it is matched by American Steel and Wire Co. (ASW) Music Wire Gauge on the chart) 5)
Best source for the remaining missing sizes 6)

I have a technical question about music wire. I typically work with the spring steel 1080 or 1085 type, its the phosphor coated wire that is common and sold as music wire. Does anyone have any experience working with the 304 stainless steel spring wire? This stuff is way less common and a bit more expensive and looks mirror shiny as a surface and not a dull gray. I was able to find it in some gauges that the regular music doesn't come in and I'm curious if people have worked with this stuff and if its functionally any different then the more common music wire.

For more details I am making an experimental string instrument that will use some very thin gauges for the wire (music wire gauges 5/0 - 1) that translates to (.005in/.127mm - .010in/.254mm) and I think the stainless steel version might be an interesting choice both because its availability and because it will look super shiny and nice installed on my instrument. Either way I will need to buy new wire for some of the gauges involved and I'm curious if anyone knows of any flaws or differences that would mean the stainless still will obviously not work. I am interested in using it as a new material and any information on its behavior and any nuance to its use would be great.

, ,
1)
https://gravitycastindia.com/images/resources/ferrouspdf/SAE%201080.pdf
2)
https://www.precisionbrand.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/certs-wire-music-carbon-steel.pdf
3)
https://www.bluebladesteel.com/content.cfm/Materials/High-Carbon-Steel/category_id/102/page_id/150
4)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_wire_gauge
5)
https://www.sizes.com/materials/wire_music.htm
6)
https://www.mcmaster.com/products/music-wire/
music_wire.txt · Last modified: 2025/09/18 16:43 by mete
Show pagesourceOld revisions
Media ManagerBack to top
CC Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International
Driven by DokuWiki Recent changes RSS feed Valid CSS Valid XHTML 1.0