"DougC" wrote in message
...
On 7/7/2011 5:58 PM, Carl Ijames wrote:
...
Page 508 has bendable rod heating elements like in a stove, they sell
them
straight and you bend to shape.

-----
Regards,
Carl Ijames

Aha! I see now.

He heh, it only shows them bent, so I thought they were /all/ bent. :|

I know that heating elements are normally nichrome, but the nichrome ones
can be heated until they're orange-hot. What I was doing wouldn't likely
ever be used at such temps, so that was why I thought that music wire
might work.

Music wire, which is plain, high-carbon steel, rusts if you look at it
cross-eyed. Heat it, and it's worse.

I made a small 12V heater element out of 20 guage stainless wire. It takes a
surprising amount of wire to get much resistance, but stainless has a much
higher resistance per foot than other steel wire -- about four times as
great. It's also about half as resistant as nichrome. It will take some
heat, but not as much as nichrome.

Here are some other values to give you perspective:

http://physics.info/electric-resistance/ (about halfway down the page)

--
Ed Huntress


Two 3-footers should do it though, and $75 isn't too bad.