Wire guage?

[Pat093]

Hey

Im interested in wiring my syzygium, but im not sure how thick the wire should be, what is the rule of thumb when choosing wire gauge?

Pat

[Jamie]

hi pat

choosing which size wire to use can be a little frustrating at first, not knowing if it will hold or not etc.

what you have to do is feel the branch you want to wire, and how much it bends, then decide which wire will suit. generally what I do if I am not sure, is choose a half size thicker than I originally thought would work. that way it is more likely to hold.

depending on species and how flexable the twigs/branches are i use-

1.2mm wire for fine wiring, twigs, up to around 1-3 mm
1.5 wire for slighlty thicker twigs up to 3mm

2 - 3mm for secondary branching (then to 1.5 or 1.2 for the twigs/tips)

4-6mm is used for trunks and heavier wiring, I havent bought 6mm wire ever with the size of my trees, thickest i have used is 4.5 and that was used with bike tube for protection of some heavy trunk compression.

this is just a rough guide, most of the time i go by the feel of it all, but i usually have more choice of the smaller thicknesses then the heavier ones.


jamie

[Taffy]

Also, if you find that the wire you've used isn't strong enough to hold the trunk/branch/twig in place, run another wire right alongside the original one. Don't take the first one of and try using a thicker wire - you may have already damaged some of the cells, and by taking it off then re-wiring, you could possibly bend it in a slightly different place or angle thereby making any 'injuries' worse.
This applies especially to 'hard to bend' or brittle wood.

[Pat093]

ok thanks guys, i will keep it in mind. and show pics when im done.

[Graeme]

Thought I'd replied to this one, must have clicked the wrong button somewhere.

A simple rule of thumb, bend the branch a little, using thumb and a finger, now bend a piece of wire using the same method. When you feel the resistance is similar, use that guage wire to wire the branch. As I said, this is only a simple rule of thumb, nothing beats experience when it comes to wiring and you are bound to make a few errors along the way. Even the "experts" fall for this one from time to time.

As Taffy said, if you do go to light with your wire, never remove it, but just add another along side. If you are adding another wire also never cross wires. If you do you will find where the wires cross it will form a tight spot and the cross will dig in very quickly. This is worse with Copper than Aluminium as Aluminium stretches easier (and further) than copper. Remember also you can use second wires to bend "other" branches - then noone will ever know you got the wire guage wrong

[Dumper]

for me.

the only 3 wires i normally use is 1mm, 2.5mm and 4mm.
once in a while i use 6mm or more for thick bend.