How to Make Coiled Wire

You will need :
Marker (Or something that you wrap wire around)
Tape
Wire
Heat gun

Step 1: Wrapping Wire

Start to wrapping wire around marker and secure it with tape

Step 2: Covering

Cover the taped sides aluminum foil, reflective side out.This will reflect heat from the heat gun away

Step 3: Heating the Wire

Heat the wire with heat gun,but when plastic come smoking let it stay minute or two and heat it again.

Step 4: Testing

Remove foil and tape.
Test the wire before you use it

Comments

[Machine]

Nicely done. I didn't think that something like that would be so easy. Thanks for showing us.

[pquadros]

Wouldn't it be wiser to use a hair dryer? Nice instructable anyway.

[Cekpi7]

well you can use it but it needs longer to heat the wire

[ynns1]

In the canadian series "How it's made" (season 15 episode 12) there was actually an episode of "How retractile wires are made". The important last stage was to reverse the coils of the wire to give it extra strength and 'spring', otherwise it remains quite loose.
The factory used a proprietary machine that wasn't allowed to be shown but an employee demonstrated the method using a hand drill grasping one end of the wire. Offcourse for a shorter and thinner wire as this a drill would be an overkill.

[TheRafMan]

Neat, I have tried this method in the past for some jumper wires for breadboards but they don't keep the shape for long, probably because the ones I used felt more like solid wires. I see you are using bigger stranded wire and was wondering if they kept the shape permanently.