Repairing the Enamel Coating on Wires

If the insulation quality cannot be assured, then it is not recommended.

If the conductor integrity cannot be assured, then it is not recommended.

It's not worth it. You have to use a baked varnish to get the original dielectric and you end up with a coating everywhere (so some is now double) and you have to have a setup that takes hours weeks and lots of money. Sell the copper to a scrap yard and buy new.

Since no one has asked yet, what type of motor is it? If it is a single or three phase ac motor then no you shouldn't try and repair it yourself (you will most likely get a turn to turn short circuit that will destroy the motor when you turn it on either immediately or in the near future).

Why did you remove the wire, were you trying to rewire it for a different voltage or repair it (or just plain curious as to how it was made).

If it is a fairly expensive motor then it may be worth while taking it to a motor rewinder for repair (no hints as to what they do), if it is a cheap motor then it probably isn't worth repairing.

No one asked because it is irrelevant, he just wanted to keep the wire for use in another project.

When wire is enamelled it is drawn through a die dipped in varnish that is shaped to make the wire ride a hydraulic wave to stay centered and it is then baked with enough free air travel to dry the varnish and then it gets a second coat and a third and more. These multiple coats avoid pinholes and give a consisten diameters and thickness of enamel and the extra coats allow flexibility through interlayer slip in bends ( If a single thick coat it might break in bends). So you have erratically enamelled wire with bare spots. You cannot use the die method, but for hobby purposes you could spray it with several layers of thinned boat varnish along with drying and even baking in between. The biggest problem would be with long lengths, as it would be hard to suspent them and varnish them, so it might be hard to do.

One way to wind bobbins with used wire is to wind them with a gap between the wires and add a layer of insulating mylar between layers. Once this isfinished, then dip them in varnish, dry and lightly bake them.

You will not be able to buy class H, 105 C risehigh temperature mylar or varnish, so whatever you make with be low temperature, class A goods, maybe 30-40 C rise. So do not overload.

If you want cheap wire, find a motor rewing shop and buy a few used partial spools .

They might want $4-6/pound or more for thick wire. Thin wire costs a lot more

Only way you can do is to strip the coating first and then recoat with proper dielectric value based on need.

If you do this my bet is it will cheaper to buy over going through this pain for small quantity. One can create a good business model but not for hobby

Throw it away and buy new. Its cheap. Or do as hams all over the world do and use it as antenna wire or wind it onto a coil form and slap a coat of cheap varnish on it. (If you use it as antenna wire, it may stretch a bit de-tuning your antenna over time but, hams love to diddle with antennas so trimming an inch or two every now and then is considered fun.

paint clear-coat the non-cunductive oil based i think

Thank you to everyone.It was my first attempt at wire salvage and only a passing thought. I hate to throw ANYTHING away. With proper spacing I could still use it for something: solenoid, resistor or maybe a FREE ENERGY DEVICE TO SAVE THE WORLD!

Thanx, Vic