When you’re in the sticks, your supply options are limited. That’s why the other day I bought a couple of extension cords instead of the bulk wire that was right on the other side of the aisle at the hardware store. I needed some 16-gauge and 18-gauge wire because the 14 and 12 I had wouldn’t fit into the terminal block of the gadget I was building.

The 16-gauge 2-conductor bulk wire, aka lamp cord, was 69 cents a foot. So was the 18-gauge. So was pretty much every other %#% bit of bulk wire they had on the shelf. The 15-foot 16-gauge extension cord was $6.99, and 8-foot 18-gauge was 4.99. And I have some nice plus I can splice in somewhere if I need them.

It makes sense from the store’s point of view, because most of the time for them the cost isn’t so much the wire as the employee getting the spool down from the shelf, finding the wire cutters, measuring out the length, and probably engaging in a little conversation to make sure the customer isn’t going to appear in tomorrow’s newspaper. But for me, with cutters and crimpers and strippers galore, it’s way easier to do my own. Of course if I needed a longer wire run than the extension cords allowed, I might have to fall back on the bulk stuff. But if I needed a longer wire run and was planning on using lamp cord, that would probably be a sign I was doing something wrong.