Saturday, January 04, 2025
Not all "Nichrome" is Nichrome
In an attempt to make a more rigid probe, I started with some 22 gauge (0.6mm) "Nichrome" wire. This took nearly a quarter of an hour to corrode away in the electrolysis cell, and when the end finally fell off it looked like this:
You do not have to be an expert metallurgist to see there's something ... interesting going on in the manufacture of this brand. There is a clear spiral pattern to the erosion, and fibres of incompletely mixed metal in the alloy. While sold as Nichrome, the packaging itself only states "Resistance Wire" and it appears that resistance is futile.
I'd recommend getting wire from a manufacturer that states the percentage of nickel and chromium, and make sure the numbers add up to 100.
