If temperature control works great on nichrome, then you may be puzzled by the question of the price of this material. If you want to save money on delays, then the problem arises - where to get nichrome without buying it in a store. Let's try to figure out this problem and help beginners in this difficult matter.
So, let's look at what nichrome wire actually is:
- differs from kanthal in its lower resistivity;
- The box mod delivers high performance power;
- does not contain iron, therefore it does not corrode and lasts much longer;
- conducts heat well. Thus, the coil heats up faster and cools down faster.
Obviously, nichrome is sold in vape shops. 1 meter of such wire is very expensive. When this option does not suit you, you can find nichrome on radio markets. They still exist, but the likelihood that you will be able to find it there is very small.
However, this issue can be solved, you just need to know where to go. Also in this matter, a regular soldering iron or a faulty device that you can stumble upon in a closet or garage will help you out. If you were unable to find a soldering iron, then you can buy it at the Fix Price store, where everything is sold at the same price. The price of a soldering iron there will be only $1.
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How to identify nichrome wire at home? Even if the customer lives in a remote locality where the supplier’s organization is not located, you can request delivery, choosing the most convenient of the proposed options. Ask, I'm in touch!
Nichrome from a soldering iron
Disassemble the soldering iron and find the same nichrome wire. We actually found one, but it was very thin. You can find out the cross-section of the wire by winding 10 turns of thread tightly pressed together around a pencil. Our turns took 1 mm.
This means that the cross-section of our thread is 0.1 mm. You can buy a lot of such cheap soldering irons, but the nichrome spiral in them may differ in length. Disassembling a household soldering iron to obtain nichrome is a really working scheme. But what to do if you don’t have a soldering iron?
A similar spiral is found in hair dryers. Different models have nichrome threads of different diameters, but they are definitely there. Nichrome can be found in a heater built on the principle of a fan. This option will be slightly more expensive than the previous one.
And finally, the most difficult way is to get this metal out of an electric stove with an open spiral. Today we told you that nichrome winding is not such an expensive undertaking. If you decide to find a thread in a soldering iron, then it can reach 2.5 m. This will turn out to be far from 1 winding.
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Built-in Chandelier
Types of soldering irons and their operating principles
Electric soldering irons are different and differ in heating method and design.
Nichrome soldering iron
In a nichrome soldering iron, the tip is heated by a nichrome spiral through which current is passed. The spiral is wound on a heat-resistant and dielectric frame. A soldering iron tip is inserted inside the frame.
Ceramic soldering iron
In ceramic soldering irons, a ceramic rod acts as a heating element. It heats up due to the voltage applied to the contacts. Such soldering irons have recently become increasingly popular. There is no risk of the soldering iron burning out since there is nothing there to burn out. But you need to be careful with it, not to throw it anywhere, because in the event of a strong impact, there is a possibility that the ceramic rod will crack.
Induction soldering iron
A special feature of this soldering iron is the way it heats the soldering iron tip. Heating is carried out due to induction currents induced in the rod, and these currents, in turn, according to the Joule-Lenz law, carry out heating.
Choosing between nichrome and kanthal
As with everything related to e-cigarettes, there is no better one. Various characteristics are well suited for some purposes and completely unsuitable for others. It's the same story with wire.
- nichrome, compared to kanthal, has lower resistivity;
- on nichrome wire, the box mod can produce more power;
- nichrome does not contain iron. Such winding will not rust, which means it will last much longer;
- nichrome conducts heat very well. A spiral made of this metal will heat up faster and cool down faster.
The advantages of nichrome over kanthal are obvious, which means it’s time to ask the question where to find such wire.
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Where to get nichrome wire at home - Water in the house It can also be used in homemade household heaters, welding machines, and in heating systems for car windows and rear-view mirrors. Ask, I'm in touch!
Video
This is the first stage of coating, the second after 10 minutes of drying. In principle, you don’t have to do it, everything is decided by visual inspection using a magnifying glass. The nichrome coils should not be visible.
Almost finished heating element (just left to dry), length 15 mm, diameter 2 mm. Optimal supply voltage 12 V, power 8 W. Drying - on a hot heating battery, the next day connected to the power supply, applied voltage sufficient to heat up to 50 degrees (monitored with a multimeter in temperature measurement mode) - let it cool and warmed up to 100 degrees, then up to 150. Can be installed locally, operational tests the next day.
In search of nichrome
It goes without saying that nichrome thread can be bought in stores that sell a variety of vaping accessories. It goes without saying that a meter of such wire can be quite expensive. And if you are just starting a career as a coil maker, then you will need more than 1 m of blank.
If this method is not affordable for you, then you can try looking for nichrome thread on radio markets. In the vastness of our homeland, they still exist, but it is not at all a fact that you will be able to find it there. But the same radio market can help us with this issue, you just need to know where to look
The solution to the situation may be a soldering iron, which you can find on the radio market, or you may find a non-working device in the closet or garage. If you still haven’t been able to find a soldering iron, you can buy one.
There is a certain chain of stores called Fix Price. There all goods are sold at a fixed price. And a soldering iron of the highest quality from China will cost you only 1 US dollar.
- You need to disassemble the soldering iron and find that same nichrome thread. The thread inside our soldering iron actually turned out to be nichrome and it was very thin.
- To find out the cross-section of your wire, you need to take a pencil and wind 10 turns of thread around it. By pressing 10 turns of thread tightly together, we can quite accurately determine the cross-section of the wire.
In our case, 10 turns occupy 1 millimeter, which tells us that the cross-section of our thread is 0.1 mm.
The nichrome wire, which you can remove from a soldering iron at home for later use in winding a coil for electronic cigarettes, has certain dimensions. The winding from the soldering iron that we managed to get this way is very cheap, as we found out.
You can buy as many of these cheap soldering irons as you like, but, as we learned experimentally, the nichrome spiral in such devices sometimes differs in length. Disassembling a household soldering iron to obtain nichrome - working diagram. But what to do if there is no soldering iron?
Where to find nichrome wire
So, let's look at what nichrome wire actually is:
- differs from kanthal in its lower resistivity;
- The box mod delivers high performance power;
- does not contain iron, therefore it does not corrode and lasts much longer;
- conducts heat well. Thus, the coil heats up faster and cools down faster.
Obviously, nichrome is sold in vape shops. 1 meter of such wire is very expensive. When this option does not suit you, you can find nichrome on radio markets. They still exist, but the likelihood that you will be able to find it there is very small.
However, this issue can be solved, you just need to know where to go. Also in this matter, a regular soldering iron or a faulty device that you can stumble upon in a closet or garage will help you out. If you were unable to find a soldering iron, then you can buy it at the Fix Price store, where everything is sold at the same price. The price of a soldering iron there will be only $1.
Physical properties of nichrome
Don’t worry, there will be no serious terms from physics that only people with special knowledge will understand, everything will be explained “on the fingers.” So that everyone understands why nichrome is truly valuable.
And so, the basic physical description of nichrome wire:
- Let's start with one of the most popular physical characteristics of any metal. We are talking about mass per unit volume or density. This parameter for nichrome fluctuates around 8100-8600 kilograms per cubic meter. This is quite a high figure. For comparison, iron and aluminum have densities of 7874 and 2700, respectively.
- The melting point of nichrome also does not have a constant value. It varies depending on the proportions of the two metals included in the mixture. On average, its value is set around 1400 degrees Celsius. This is a very convenient and practical value, because it allows nichrome wire to function calmly at high temperatures of 900-1200 degrees Celsius.
- Nichrome has high electrical resistance. About 1100-1300 Ohm*m. This characteristic allows you to safely use nichrome wire in the manufacture of electrical appliances.
There are a couple more physical characteristics of this material that are less important, but they are also worth mentioning. We are talking about mechanical strength (700 MPa) and overall high ductility of the material. This allows you to easily change the shape of nichrome, which adds variability and versatility.
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Where can I get nichrome wire and how to calculate the resistance? Then the treated area is wiped with a cotton swab soaked in an alcohol solution of copper chloride, flux is applied and soldering is performed. Ask, I'm in touch!
Methods for adjusting the temperature of soldering irons
For high-quality soldering, it is necessary to select the temperature for the solder, because an incorrectly selected temperature will worsen the quality of soldering; to prevent this from happening, temperature regulators are introduced, mostly digital or power regulators - simpler regulators, often analog.
Analog regulators
Analog regulators are fairly simple and reliable devices, with a minimal amount of electronic filling.
In the simplest case, the adjustment occurs as follows: using the knob, a certain desired temperature value Tg is set, an analog circuit compares the current temperature value Tg and, if Tt is lower than Tg, it turns on the heating, if Tt is higher than Tg, it turns it off.
The advantages of this solution: simplicity, low cost, reliable solution
Disadvantages of this solution: the soldering iron has inertia, so the temperature will change over fairly wide intervals, regardless of the set value of the desired temperature.
Heater production
Firstly, nichrome has become an advanced material in the manufacture of heating devices. Various types of tubular and spiral electric heaters are made using nichrome wire.
It is usually used as a core. This is very economical and practical; nichrome is not very expensive and is an extremely durable material.
Wire for heaters is made with an emphasis on nickel, since it determines the ductility of the overall mixture. The greater the proportion of nickel content, the higher this parameter of the wire.
Useful tips Connection diagrams Principles of operation of devices Main concepts Meters from Energomer Precautions Incandescent lamps Video instructions for the master Testing with a multimeter
Heating element types
Any soldering iron, no matter how expensive it is, performs soldering by melting the solder; soldering irons differ only in the heating method, heating elements, the presence of temperature control and other parameters. The following is a table with types of heaters.
| Heater type | Active element | Heat loss | Advantages | Flaws | Approximate heating time |
| Nichrome | Nichrome wire | High | Simplicity | Nichrome burnout | high inertia |
| Ceramic | Nichrome wire in sintered ceramic | Low | Durable | fragile | Tens of seconds |
| Induction | Ferrite | Low | Durable | Temperature adjustable | Seconds |
High heat loss means that not all of the expended energy was transferred to the tip; the higher the heat loss, the worse the temperature control.
The most common are nichrome heaters and their varieties, due to their ease of maintenance, low price and simple operation.
Next in popularity are ceramic ones; their heating element is distributed evenly throughout the heater, resulting in high heat transfer and minimal losses.
The top three are inductive heaters; they operate on the principle of an inductive electric stove - the metal is heated due to magnetic induction, but at a certain temperature (Curie point), the heating stops and a constant temperature is maintained. It should be noted that the operating temperature is determined by the material of the tip.
