Power to Track - CAT 5 Wire

Don't do it!  Even pairing it up will be vastly undersized for track power!

I used CAT5 to power my DZ-2500 switch machines, that's a suitable use for it.  I have #14 wire for my main power runs and #18 wire for the short drops from the track to under the table.  I spent well over $5,000 for track and switches, so when it came to wiring, I spent an extra $90 at Home Depot for #14 THHN pure copper wire.

Thanks.  Stranded or solid wire? 

I use stranded, it's easier to work with and there's no difference as far as performance.

Again, thanks for the advice.  Heading to the big orange box store now!

Here's a way to answer your own question, as to whether Cat5 is sufficient.

There is a formula to find the effective gauge of two or more copper conductors in parallel.

Example:  two 24 g wires in parallel. Take the gauge of ONE of the conductors and subtract 3. That's the effective gauge of the combination.  So...two 24G in parallel is the equivalent of 21 G wire. 

Take two of those combinations (two of the twisted pairs in Cat5) and put them in parallel: two 21G (subtract 3 from 21) equals 18G.

All four pairs (eight conductors) would be the equivalent of 15G wire.  As Gunney said, a much easier and more elegant solution is to use the right wire to begin with.  The Cat 5 is great for low current (signaling) applications.

If you have that disease "Mufunzalo" you can use stranded conductors from defective 14G extension cords found around construction sites; the ones that a Skil saw went through, etc.

Use this handy Wire Combination Calculator if you want an easy way to find the effective gauge of multiple parallel wires.

And what some people don't realize is if you use multiple small conductors like #24 to make a wire to handle the feed current around #14 gauge,  and should somehow several of the conductors out of your made up wire break, you now have all your current going through a #24 gauge wire and there is your fire.