Ni-chrome wire

[stephent]

Found some ni-chrome wire at a flea market the other day.

It's ribbon/foil type wire about .0063 x .112 or so.

It has 1.3 ohms resistance per foot and 2 feet across a vehicle battery (13.4vdc) won't even do much heating (very slightly above ambient using the old "between the fingers test") so it looks like it will take 10 amps or more to do that.

Just wondering if anyone might need a few feet/yards to make a dump load element with.

US postal only--I don't need the hassel of overseas shipping/customs/dutys, sorry!

Don't want your $$--but you pay postage + whatever you send to mail back in (I don't want to go find some mailers it might fit in without getting folded/crimped/mutalated or stapled--if you think the "thing" you send me will have it arrive back in good shape--that's your thinking, it will start from here unkinked)--it's light stuff so just a couple stamps probably. A flat envelope will have it arrive back looking like an old aluminum Christmas Tree tinsel strand from last year--kinks and ni-chrome won't mix well under heating conditions, I promise.

Ideas/discussion for mailing safely are welcomed.

Made by Wilber B. Driver (or spooled by) and it's labeled Tophet A nickel chrome.

specs on spool say 13 ohms per 10 ft. Wire number/type is smudged and I cannot read it, sorry.

Watching the output of a small stepper motor driven by a window fan blade on my scope in 4 or 5 mph wind. Looks like a fair to middling sine wave at 3 v pp at 4mph...no load... and 2 1/2 v pp at 2mph wind speed..turns easily........facinating as Spock would say.

Just sitting here resting today, took off work (that's a four letter word ya know)due to flu or some bug that bit me. And doing a bit of piddling/research..something to forget the blahhh feeling.

Post here--and if I have violated any forum rules by this--I appologize profusely, abundantly and sincerely and will remove this entry from web diary, and take 10 floggs with a cordless mouse and appologize again.

Stephent (aka w5set--go http://www.qrz.com/ and enter that in upper left spot)--I'm easy to find--slow to anger--willing to oblige--but my wife says I'm getting very stubborn in my old age. and if you find a email address there listed--forget it, won't work, too many vIaGrA ads and assorted crud.

[willib]

Those priority mailers ( large envelopes ) with two pieces of some cardboard should be good for mailing..

either that or a small cardboard box ..

USPS priority mail will be almost nothing , since it will be so light .

your test should have produced more heat , not sure why it didnt get hotter , with 5.15 Amps going through it ?

[stephent]

Wasn't enough amps for wire size?

Did another with approx one foot, and that one did heat a bit.

Enough for me to let go soon enough and the wire to get a slight blue color after and going into pale straw for heat color, not yellow--the pale straw like in heat tempering color. 500 + deg F or so.

Looks like these will take around 12 amps or more to get much heat as in hot enough to radiate a bit. I will have to do some more experimenting, I guess.

make a nice warmer pad for the old pooch laying out in zero temps if made like a heating pad for 12/24vdc and insulated properly?

12 volt toaster?

dump load element(s)?

small sized and  medium/large amp resistance type shunt for meters--controllers?

patch oil heaters for fuel type generators or the generator patch heater to keep moisture down and out of the windings. Combining a needed load (like a gen patch heater in humid comditions) as an alternate dump load seems to be the right thing to do, when you have enough power being genned to meet normal needs, anyway.

several possibilities.

Only thing to watch would be the joints where connected or paralleled--silver solder--braise or spot weld would be my reccomendation.

A spot welder is easy to implement since most here may have a large 12 volt battery available--the center core of a carbon/zinc or alkaline D cell will make a usable point if whittled down to a point--connect wires to that (jumper cables?) and lay the object on a large flat metal surface--connect one wire to that and the other to the carbon point--stick point to where spot is to be made, press hard, kind of like carbon arc welding without "most" of the arcing. When ya see red--it should be done, and might need a couple to conduct the amps desired through the wire.

Mailers would be cheap, but getting the wire through the mail would be a challenge to get it without kinks and such.

Every time I pack something fool-proof, a bigger fool handles it and proves me wrong.

Wound on a small cardboard spool and inside a box would probably work. Although if it goes through an x-ray machine, the metal winding will raise eyebrows and it will be opened....maybe a flat 1/4in thick board to wind it on?

Any ideas for more/less safe mailing are welcomed.

Interested in a few feet or yards? mailing costs--yours + what to mail in. Outside of that it's free?

It's just that I have a "bit" more then I will ever need or use and don't mind sharing some.