welding rod as heating element?

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glycerine

glycerine

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Way off topic from pen making, but it seems like I have heard that you can use a welding rod to make a heating element. Anyone have any experience with that? If so, can you just connect a positive and negative wire to each end and plug it up to a 120v outlet?
The reason I ask is because I'm looking at making a cheap and simple strip heater for bending plexi...
 
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glycerine said:
Way off topic from pen making, but it seems like I have heard that you can use a welding rod to make a heating element. Anyone have any experience with that? If so, can you just connect a positive and negative wire to each end and plug it up to a 120v outlet?
The reason I ask is because I'm looking at making a cheap and simple strip heater for bending plexi...
Click to expand...
Nope you can't do that, not unless you want to electrocute your self. Yes a welding rod is a heating type of element but it is specific to that use. If you want to make a heater you should use a heating type element like something out of a clothes dryer, but there again you need to know the watts and the voltage. You need to find an electrican to give you some advise on where and what to buy.

Lin.
 
Yeah.....i am not an electrician but i am a welder and last time i hooked a positive to a negative this real bright light happened :biggrin: you can get a single burner for a stove in the camping section at walmart for your heating element. i have an old locker that i gutted i use for keeping my rods warm so they say good, i would imagine that it would serve your purpose just as well. i found mine on craigslist.

Chris
 
You don't really want to use welding rod, as it is made virtually WITHOUT any specifications. Google "nichrome wire and heating elements" there will likely be 1,000,000 or more articles. Nichrome wire is cheaper than welding rod (and can usually be found at welding supply houses) and at some time was used in virtually EVERY heating element made.

This does require a skill set, but can easily be made without much effort. At one time there were many articles, but since nichrome wire can also be used to detonate bombs, much of the useful information has disappeared....THANKS BIG BROTHER!

Respectfully submitted.
 
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Some of the plastics dealers sell heat strips for bending plexiglass and its lookalikes
Please don't hook hot wires to a welding rod. That is a good way to take a long dirt nap.
 
There ARE still place in Georgia that use welding rod as a"heating" element. The two most notable are the Atlanta Federal Penitentiary and the Jackson Diagnostic and Correction Facility. In both of those places, they refer to their welding rod heating element as "Old Sparky". I hope you get my drift....This is ANYTHING but safe.
 
PenMan1 said:
You don't really want to use welding rod, as it is made virtually WITHOUT any specifications. Google "nichrome wire and heating elements" there will likely be 1,000,000 or more articles. Nichrome wire is cheaper than welding rod (and can usually be found at welding supply houses) and at some time was used in virtually EVERY heating element made.

This does require a skill set, but can easily be made without much effort. At one time there were many articles, but since nichrome wire can also be used to detonate bombs, much of the useful information has disappeared....THANKS BIG BROTHER!

Respectfully submitted.
Click to expand...

Maybe that's what I am thinking about...
 
Where do you have your shop? Once you are finished with the welding rod fiasco someone will have to come over and purchase what ever you have left from your widow. A very small 3/32 rod will carry about 90 amps before it gets hot enough to heat anything.
As far as the Ni-chrome wire, to handle it you must not touch it with bare fingers. The oil in your skin will contaminate the wire causing it to burn into where it was touched. Again, with it open to air, there is line voltage present to readily put you down for the count. Please, very please, use a UL approved heating device to bend your plastic. I do not want to hear of you or anyone else dieing from something like this. Be careful, be very careful around any type of heating device, especially some kind of rigged electrical device. AC is like Ma Bell, it will reach out and touch you. If you are lucky, it hurts. If not, well you know the rest. RIP. We need you, be careful.
Charles
 
Don't worry, I'm not going to do anything stupid. That's why I'm asking. The closest I ever came to electrocuting myself was making an extension cord with male plugs on both ends. It's a long story and that was years ago!
 
glycerine said:
Don't worry, I'm not going to do anything stupid. That's why I'm asking. The closest I ever came to electrocuting myself was making an extension cord with male plugs on both ends. It's a long story and that was years ago!
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Not to cause you any PAIN, but this is also not one of your brightest ideas either. :rolleyes::eek::confused:

Using nichrome wire is definitely the way to go for a home-made rig. A little advice here is to order a reasonably sized spool as in the beginning you will burn through a couple of pieces to get the thing working correctly.

Ten or so years ago I made a nichrome cutter to cut 4'x4'x2' blocks of styrofoam and quickly used up a 50' spool. THEN I discovered that Home Depot sells a decent light dimmer for heavy duty lighting and that was the answer. I believe I paid more for that ($75 to $90) than the wire, but I still have the unit working after nine years or so and it may have the last piece of nichrome attached that I was using.

You will learn quickly that the nichrome wire will melt and break IF you apply to much voltage ... hence the longer roll. Also when it gets hot IT STRETCHES. Touch it to hard and it breaks! Ask your wire source about ribbon instead of wire??

Thinking back on this, what width and thickness plastic do you intend on bending? They do make heavy duty nylon rope cutters that might do what you want. They are just glorified soldering guns.

If you have a marine supply or good hardware store nearby, go and look at their rope selection and check out what they are using ... just an idea for you so you can closely examine a working unit. Home Depot or Lowes also cut their rope this way. (Or they are suppossed to, to keep it from unraveling!)

When you find a source for the wire, which I/we hope you will use, CALL the folks and discuss the idea. I am sure they will give you a bit of guidance.

One last thing, never touch the wire for any reason while it is hot as it can/does and will burn you to the bone instantly ... somewhere around here I may still have the denim jacket with just part of the right sleeve. The rest of it was cut neatly off and barely missed my forearm as I jerked out of the flaming thing. It was a life altering experience as well, but I still have my arm intact!

Oh yea, bare feet and electricity do not go together either ... even on concrete floors. DAMHIKT!! Have you ever tasted your own metal fillings in your mouth? :eek: (NOT A GOOD THING!)
 
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Deja- vu Fred?

When I was bending my plexiglass I grabed a piece of heat resistant paper used for baking, Parchment paper??? Then when the wife was out of the house I got one of her stright edge griddles that she uses to make tortillas on.
Placed the griddle on the stove on low with my parchment paper over the edge and slowly used the edge of the griddle to bend my "seam" in my plixiglass.
Worked well.

I'm smart enough to know I'm too stupid to be playing with electrical sockets. :wink:
 
Fred, as an old and very lucky electrician, I can hardly stand to drink water that has flown through copper piping. I can taste the copper. I have been hung on hot lines three times. I was told that to be hung twice and still be breathing was very extraordinary. Most people are dead before then. Yes, I understand tasting my fillings. I sure do. Take some advice from an old fool, do not go there even once. It hurts, a bunch and if you are lucky, for awhile.
Charles
 
The closest I ever came to electrocuting myself was making an extension cord with male plugs on both ends. It's a long story and that was years ago![/quote said:
Tell me this was for christmas lights!!!! Sorry at lowes we get it all the time, they put the lights up backwards so they need this extension cord...LOL
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I think it works if you are standing in a puddle barefoot:biggrin:


glycerine said:
Way off topic from pen making, but it seems like I have heard that you can use a welding rod to make a heating element. Anyone have any experience with that? If so, can you just connect a positive and negative wire to each end and plug it up to a 120v outlet?
The reason I ask is because I'm looking at making a cheap and simple strip heater for bending plexi...
Click to expand...
 
snyiper said:
The closest I ever came to electrocuting myself was making an extension cord with male plugs on both ends. It's a long story and that was years ago![/quote said:
Tell me this was for christmas lights!!!! Sorry at lowes we get it all the time, they put the lights up backwards so they need this extension cord...LOL
Click to expand...

That's exactly what it was for!! I thought all of the lights had the male/female on one end, so you could plug it either way. I was wrong. So I got "smart" and made a "special" cord to keep from re-doing all of the lights... But where I REALLY went wrong was plugging the thing into the wall before I plugged it into the lights! THAT was stupid. I realized all of this after the fact and how dangerous it was, how I could have killed myself, etc., etc. But all is well, and I tossed that cord after I was done with it!
Now, where did I put that welding rod...? I kid, I kid, I'm not going to try that. I WILL try the nichrome wire and dimmer switch though.
The plexi I'm bening will probably always be 1/8-1/4 thickness, and probably no more than a foot wide.
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I didn't plan on TOUCHING it!

greggas said:
I think it works if you are standing in a puddle barefoot:biggrin:


glycerine said:
Way off topic from pen making, but it seems like I have heard that you can use a welding rod to make a heating element. Anyone have any experience with that? If so, can you just connect a positive and negative wire to each end and plug it up to a 120v outlet?
The reason I ask is because I'm looking at making a cheap and simple strip heater for bending plexi...
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
 
"Honest, Officer. He said, 'hold my beer and watch this.' Then there was a flash and BAM! he just, just, just disappeared.":biggrin:
 
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