How many mA can a coiled phone cord handle from a 6v battery?

I'm building a 6v sealed lead acid battery pack to provide power to an old camera flash. I'd like to use a coiled cord because it will keep the whole set up neater. Phone cords are abundant and cheap but I don't want to risk overloading the cord and causing a short circuit.

Thanks for replying, qrk.

I'm going to power some old Vivitar 283s, if that helps. I haven't been able to find what they draw from the normal AA battery pack, but I assume it can't be too terribly high. I hadn't thought of a fuse, that's a great tip -- I'll include if for sure.

What is the peak current required by your flash?

Coil cords (retractile cables) comes in all sort of flavors. Some phone coil cords use very thin foil conductors (tinsel) wound in a helix over a fabric string. Best bet is find a cord and run current through it with a power supply that can supply constant current equivalent to the current required by your flash. You don't want the wire temperature to increase more than 10 degrees C with the wire bunched up.

There are industrial coil cords that have anywhere from 28 to 16 AWG wire.

BTW, be sure to put a fuse on the battery pack (3 to 5 times the current required by the flash). Lead acid batteries can supply lots of current in to a short circuit, regardless of the battery size. If something goes wrong (short somewhere in your wiring) any cord will become very hot and could burn you, send out lots of smoke, catch fire, and/or cause the battery to fail catostrophically (something you really want to avoid).