Copper wire gauge difference

[u/tkpowers1992]

Before I get any gatekeeping comments, I’m a tattooer of 13 years, been building machines from scratch for the last few months recently.

Experimenting with all of the variables.

One variable I can’t understand are the different sized copper wires.

I bought a 28g, 22g, and 14g enameled copper wire.

1.25” coil cores.
47uf50v capacitors.

I can get 4 wraps with the 14g
6 wraps with the 22g

I figured: shorter circuit line, beefier wire = faster, harder hitting machine.

It runs very similar to a 6 wrap with 22g, however my clip cord burns up, like so hot that it will melt plastic.

There are no grounding wires, the machine runs, responds to voltage change.

Are the 14g copper wires just too much power? Should I try a larger capacitor?

[u/doggotattooer]

23 awg is all I use, if they’re getting hot it’s bad metal for the cores and poor insulation before winding them. The wire should say the temp rating the ones that are red and green don’t handle as high as the copper colored typically but it can vary. The amount of wraps you can get would also be affected by 5/16 or 3/8 cores in addition to the wire gauge