What tools and parts would I have to buy in order to get me started in wire wrapping/unwrapping? Price is non relevant.
Is Kynar AWG30 wire adequate for that?
My preferred wirewrap tool is the Oki Tools WSU-30
http://www.jonard.com/jonard-ecommerce/control/product/~category_id=HAND_WRAP_TOOLS_1/~product_id=10021
Wraps, unwraps, and has a stripper built in to the middle.
Wirewrap sockets from your supplier of choice
One example
http://www.king-cart.com/phoenixent/product_name=HWS4470/category=SOCKETS+WIRE+WRAP+DIP+%2526+SIP/exact_match=exact
Layout the sockets, solder down the sockets, each end of a strip and maybe one pin in the middle, and wrap away.
I believe everyone here that has looked into it as a new assembly method has liked it.
Thank you, that's great! 
I thought I would've had to buy more things. These wirewrap tools you prefer are very affordable, considering the benefits of the ww system. I found them right there on the Phoenix pages you suggested. And they have the Regular (WSU-30) and the Modified (WSU-30M) versions. Do you know what the difference is?
I've read about how strong can a 7 turn wirewrap connection on square pins be. You actually get 28 airtight contact poins if you do it right. Connections to last. I remember the vintage super computers of my time were even built with lots of wire wrapping, and the same applied for phone companies networks. Am I correct?
Okay, dokay, I will work on redesigning my model railroad projects, in order to include wire wrapping.
Thanx again!
+1 wirewrap, its really much less tedious than soldering a pile of connections with loose wire
I just use a 6$ radioshack tool, but its great for 6 bucks ... you got to get a feel for the cheap tool or it will snap wires like crazy, but once you do its like twisting a jewelers screwdriver and you can go at it pretty fast.
it unwraps as well, considering its cheap radio shat stuff its pretty darn good for a trip to the mall
they sell the wire too, but not the sockets, though in a pinch some square pin male headers work well enough
Thank you for the +1, your @ssh0leiness,
I concur. Wire wrapping must be the future. ]
your @ssh0leiness
hehe, it fits the picture, was given to me by a sparkfun shrill, and its mostly true as well ]
Though I admit I went on that radio shack advertisement misreading your location, I thought it was N(ew) Mexico at a glance ... I dont even know if radio shack is a thing in real Mexico (only been a few times and could not care any less about radio shack while there lol)
Sorry Osgeld, just kiddin' , perdón, I apologize but I always like to joke with friends
Have you really been to MonteRRey (not CA but South of the border, down Mexico way). Monterrey as in "Old Blue Eyes" Frankie, "It happened in Monterrey, a long time ago".
And yes, there's a local Radio Shack. And you know what, ... it stinks. Instead I would recommend many other nicer places to enjoy yourself and of course offer you our hospitality.
See Osgeld, most of the guys did not like the solder rings I found, while searching for another part, but then again, who cares, as a by product of this thread and CrossRoads' suggestions, we are rediscovering WIRE WRAPPING as an excellent, and maybe a bit forgotten, tool.
BTW: If anybody noticed a great advantage on of the solder rings, is that they completely free one of your hands when soldering.
¡Salud, Osgeld, I invite you to a cold beer or a single malt whenever you come down here! XD
PS: I'm also a mathematician so, does Osgeld really == @assh0le?. Somehow I don't think so !!!
PPS: Oh shoot, just kiddin' again. ¡Gracias y bienvenido! ]
OK, YourDuino.com is looking for low-cost WireWrap tools, wire etc. I have a lot of WW sockets and I need to ship them TO China.. I will have them in our "ProtoTyping" section..
Anyone who has never seen this:
A couple of photos:
I have wirewrapped, um, yes - thousands of wires. Most of them > 20 years ago.
A free wirewrap tool and some wire and a few sockets to the first person who tells us what this means:
"Dog Three is VCC and Dog Eight is Ground"
@bibre,
I have WSU-30M apparantly. Looks just like the one in the picture above.
The M means modified. Have to read the Oki tools description, somehow it lets the wires wrap a little differently to start.
The long end wraps, the the short end unwraps.
@Terry,
Pin D3 is connected to Vcc, Pin D8 is connected to ground.
D being the 4th strip, 3rd & 8th holes.
I'd like boards that have the same layout as the solderless breadboards, so we can transfer right over.
You can obtain boards with the same layout. For example,
PROTO777
http://www.futurlec.com/ProtoBoards.shtml#PROTO777
looks like two solderless breadboards next to each other.
Definitely get a "modified wrap" tool. It puts a turn or so of insulated wire around the post as well as the N turns of bare wire, which makes for significantly more physically robust boards, when you're all done (especially since the "edge" of the insulated part may be a physical weak point in the wired, if your stripping of insulation wasn't perfect...)
I remember when the OKI tool was about $10. $30 is ridiculous 
I used to wirewrap. Doing passive components is annoying. SMT anything is nearly impossible. Nowdays, you can get a PCB made for the price of the sockets and adapters and such for a moderate sized project.
On the plus side, a WW socket strip on something like an Arduino Bare Bones Board gives you both 'plug into a protoboard' on the bottom and "plug in wires" on the top...
one thing I do is wrap directly to leads, and then follow up with solder so it will actually hold. soldering ribbon cable just got a ton easier (most of it is the right size to fit in the tools) without expensive crimpers, and dead bugs are stupid easy
its still a ton easier and quicker than trying to manually hold the component, wire and solder it since the wire is already wrapped around the leads
(yea thats cellophane tape on cardboard, totally ESD safe)
Interesting Osgeld!
Just curiosity, but what do you do with that circuit on the cardboard?
its a 6x9 inch 7 segment display made out of hot melt glue sticks
PS: and yes I have been to Monterrey, but it was like 20 years ago when I was 10 or so heh
Clever and CREATIVE ! 8)
Well, looking forward to meeting you if you come back here, but please ... don't bring your 7 segment digit because it'll melt at 42 ºC in the shade, he, he.
@Terry, Pin D3 is connected to Vcc, Pin D8 is connected to ground. D being the 4th strip, 3rd & 8th holes.
CrossRoads Strikes Again!
Were you at IBM also, or just OverLogical...?? This was a mantra that those of us who prototyped lots of boards at IBM repeated in our sleep. Along with the "Ziiip" of the electric WireWrap gun. I still have a nice one, which is a luxury any more.
Robert, I think I have your NewEngland address. It'll be a little while before I have that WW stuff in stock..
I'd like boards that have the same layout as the solderless breadboards, so we can transfer right over.
Yes!! I have to find those at a good price....
Definitely get a "modified wrap" tool. It puts a turn or so of insulated wire around the post as well as the N turns of bare wire, which makes for significantly more physically robust boards, when you're all done (especially since the "edge" of the insulated part may be a physical weak point in the wired, if your stripping of insulation wasn't perfect...)
I remember when the OKI tool was about $10. $30 is ridiculous
Look at an electric WireWrap tool now: $250, and the BIT?? another $150 or so... I'll guard mine
Thanks for all the good ideas!
Was not at IBM, just built a lot of stuff over time.
One of the fun things I did as a co-op at DEC (Digital Equipment Corp, now gone) was working with 10K and 100K ECL (emitter coupled logic) and using Time Domain Reflectrometry to measure signal lengths and reflections and terminations. And later a summer job at Teradyne writing test vectors for MSI & LSI chips. And finally several years at Raytheon designing high speed memory cards. Most complex one was 85-90 surface mount chips on 16 layer cards mounted back to back on thick copper plates for cooling, with crossover connector on top and even more pins on the bottom to connect to the backplane. My controller card managed 8 memory cards, and did 8-16-32-64 bit transfers with the rest of the system, with spare rows of memory and spare colums of memory for swapping out failed rows or columns as a demonstration, and 64/72 BIT EDAC for corrections of 1 and 2 bit transient upsets. 68020 processor just to initialize the memory on system startup.
Fun times.
yea.. well ... we make led lighting systems as a subsystem supplier for car companies ...
i got to use a flip flop in a design once