source for some wire?

Omega would my first stop for any kind of thermocouple wire. A co-worker asked me for some coating for some

0.001 iron-constantan pairs last week, and the sticker on them said they were from omega. I think that's even smaller than no. 46 gage. How much do you need?

Jim

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What's it for? I take it Ni-chrome wouldn't do.

Ted

It's awfully fine wire- about 1.5 thou. Constantan is a nickel alloy, and fairly tough, though. If it's for a potentiometer or resistor application, Manganin resistance wire would be better all around (it's a Manganese/Copper/Nickel alloy instead of just Copper/Nickel). I don't have the relative resistivities close at hand, but a Google search should find them.

Best regards, Spehro Pefhany

yes its a potentiometer application.

Hi... I probably have some manganin wire close to that size... email me and I'll send you some, free.

Mark

its not so mutch the size but the resistance. measure it first please.

That used to be a reliable source for a wide range of remnants/surplus wire, I have not used him in a long time though.

If you're sure that is what you want, here you go.

As an unsolicited observation, generally nichrome or maganin are used as resistance wire. .0015 wire can be fairly miserable to work with. You might want to ask the fellows here how to approach the application. The readers here do all kinds of things. One gentleman that posts here fairly often worked for the three letter wirewound resistor house.

Kevin Gallimore

That might be me? I worked for a few years for KRL, a wire-wound resistor company in Manchester, New Hampshire. I built several winding machines and converted old ones to PLC control. The ladies who ran these machines were real craftspersons. Some of them had years of experience making resistor. They could take the finest, most delicate wire and wind it and weld it with almost

100% yield.

I also made a few resistance welders consisting of a DC power supply charging up a capacitor, then discharging it into the primary of a filament transformer to create a current surge to weld the wire. The more controllable welders used Hughes equipment. Very sophisticated with accurate control of current, duration, pressure, wave shape and other things I've forgotten.

Earle Rich Mont Vernon, NH

Yes, Earle, you were the gentleman I had in mind (although I thought the only resistor house in NH was RCD). The analog computer manufacturer I worked for years ago had to make many of their own components due to the tolerances required. The resistors had been sourced outside by the time I got there, but we still had to make the precision capacitors. It was neat to work at a place that actually made stuff. Sigh. I had better stop before I get into a manufacturing rant.

Kevin Gallimore

Was that Clarostat at one time? I went to look at a job automating something or other at a plant in an ancient mill building in that area perhaps 15 years ago. Nothing ever came of the job-I can't even remember what it was-but do remember the building. It seemed like one of the oldest mills I've been in, and I've been in more than a few.

Ned Simmons

Check. As a side note, do you require insulated or not insulated?

Jim

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Clarostat is in an old mill building in the middle of Dover, New Hampshire. Their major products were/are wire wound and film potentiometers. KRL (still in business) is near the airport in Manchester, NH. RCD was another of the major manufacturers of resistors.

There were a whole series of resistor companies in NH. One of the gurus, BJ Perry was bought out with a stipulation that he stay out of the business for some number of years. As soon as the time period was up, he bought KRL, another company that also made solar controls. The solar part was why I was with them. After Bob Leinsing, the original owner of KRL was kick out, taking the solar part with him, I stayed behind.

As soon as Perry's son was bought in to be general manager, things went to hell pretty quickly. Arrogant only begins to describe him. We had some problems, ending up with him calling me into his office on my birthday. How nice, I thought. He's going to give me something. RIght, he gave me my freedom, escorted out of the building under guard. Pretty funny now.

Earle Rich Mont Vernon, NH

Another part of the misery would be getting the insulation off of this stuff. When I was doing precision resistors, I had to build a heated dip bath that contained some proprietary liquid that would remove the insulation without touching the manganin.

By the way, I have all sorts of sizes of manganin wire, from less than .001 inch to about 3/16" in diameter. Perfect stuff to make shunts with.

Mark

I have been in contact with mark but if you want to help its uninsulated