I needed to post this... an experience I had today.

Went to local Radio ShOck looking for a coiled wire, enough to feed
800mA (6Vdc) to a moving head, first thought was a handset telephone
coiled wire, all 4 wires soldered in parallel should do... the return
current goes through ground. That kind of wire size is AWG 28 or around,
stands aprox 760mA per wire, so 4 wires should do it.

First went to the regular wires section, browsing around, some attendant
start a conversation:

he: "Can I help you?",
I:  "Yes, thank you, I am looking for a coiled wire"
he: "What kind of wire?"
I:  "Coiled, isolated, to supply 6V, 800mA to a moving head, it can be a
coiled telephone headset wire. Cell phone lighter car recharger coiled
wire can not do, it is short"
he: "NO! you can't use telephone wire to feed 800mA"
I:  "Why not?"
he: "Because it is too much current, telephone wire stands few
milliamps"
I:  "How many milliamps?, what is the top current for telephone wires?
what is the AWG size?"
he: "I don't know!, but it should be far less than half amp"
I:  "You don't know the size of a telephone wire, not even the current,
how can you be so sure about what you are saying? that it can not feed
800mA?"
he:  "Telephone wires were done to stand low current, can not conduct
800mA"
I:   "How can you be so sure about it? if you don't know the specs of
the wire?"
he:  "They are so small, look..."
      At this point I was holding a big laugh, he was showing a flat
beige 4 wires telephone wire.
I:   "I am talking about coiled wire, not this one"
he:  "It is the same thing"
I:   "No, it is not, the other is coiled"

Sure he got trapped by my questions... he could not justify his guessing
about the current.
I just looked around a bit more and exit the store.
He never pointed me the shelve where lots of coiled telephone wires were
just sit.

Ok, now, do you want to buy a nice computer? a handheld two way
communication radio? perhaps a nice security system? and are not so sure
about it, looking for help? go there and ask this same guy...

Morale:   When asking for technical help, first ask the guy if he really
knows about it, had experience about it... or if he will just guess
about it... remember that you also can guess (that he's an idiot)...

His approaching question should be:  "Can I help you guessing
something?"

Wagner.