I’m learning some basic electrical in order to wire some smart switches and I’ll have to make some pigtail connections. Where are the best places to get scrap wire for this?
Should I just pick up 25ft of cable so I can pull out some white and black wires, or should one get wire spools of THHN wire? It’s not clear to me what’s the right kind of wires to use.
You generally want solid core wire to match what you're working with in your home. I keep rolls of #14 and #12 cable on hand and cut off those as needed. You may be able to purchase pre-cut pigtails, but they're probably quite expensive as compared to regular cable.
Also note that 250 ft. rolls are far more cost-effective than short rolls. It's far cheaper per foot and you might be surprised how quickly you go through it as a homeowner.
Many stores will cheerfully sell you NM or THWN wire by-the-foot. I typically buy 2 feet of it, shuck the sheath off the NM, and then cut it into either three 8" or four 6" lengths, depending on how long I want my pigtails.
That's when I'm working far from where I do electrical, obviously I have a glut of wire here.
If your preferred store won't sell by-the-foot, that's not an electrical problem, that's a shopping problem.
If you had a good relationship with a proper electrical supply house, I would expect them to disappear into the back, and come back with a few scraps, wave hand and say "don¡t worry about it".
As you're doing other wiring, you're bound to cut off bits that are 6" or longer. Keep 'em somewhere handy and use these when necessary.
Just remember, it's OK to use #12 for pigtails on a 15amp circuit with #14 wire, but IT IS NOT OK to use #14 on a 20amp circuit that requires #12 wire end-to-end. It's pretty easy to tell them apart, even if you'll pulled wires out of the cable and have just the bits of wire laying around.
While the typical way electricians make pigtails is by "shucking" the jacket from NM or UF cable of the appropriate gauge and using the wires inside, this isn't the only way to do it. Many hardware stores and electrical supply houses will sell THHN by-the-foot for a small additional charge atop the per-foot price of the wire, and appropriate gauge THHN (either solid or stranded) can be used for pigtails as well. (Note that stranded wire doesn't mix with backstabs, not that backstab connections were ever a good idea to begin with!)
