I have not built this circuit yet, but Nichrome gets hot with electricity. If I have button batteries in holders, connected in parallel, and Nichrome wire on the end, won’t the connectors on the button battery holders just end up melting?
How do I stop this from happening?
Sounds like a legitimate concern. So connect the nichrome wire to copper wires with lower resistance and sufficient length (so they don't heat up too much on the battery end) which you in turn connect to the batteries.
Btw, using button batteries for generating heat sounds like a good way to consume vast numbers of button batteries in a short period of time.
The holders and connections are likely made from steel. Check with a magnet. You need the springiness of steel to hold the button cells.
Paul
Could also be non-magnetic stainless steel.
NiChrome is often difficult to solder. If you can't solder it get a small butt crimp to connect it to a piece of copper wire from the battery terminal(s).
I believe it cannot be soldered at all due to the high chromium content, so will need spot-welding or (ceramic-housed) screw-terminal. Solder would simply melt anyway!
Google showed this as a first reply: Do not try to silver solder the nichrome wire directly into the circuit--just tin it with the silver solder and then regular solder works FB to attach it to tie points or ...
Paul
When you add a small amount of silver solder (requires borax flux and a blow torch) to the terminal ends, these coated ends can be soldered with regular solder.
Why not just use one of these?
If running from button cells (a very bad idea) you will need to use a long length of VERY FINE nichrome to get enough resisitance.
Perhaps you could tell us what you are trying to achieve?
I wonder if this is a follow up on the earlier thread a week or so ago about achieving really high heat with button cells. I didn't look it up, but similar questions were raised. It almost sounded like some kind of pyrotechnic igniter to me for one time use. To be Frank, the possibilities worry me a bit.
I am simply testing out heating up a Nichrome wire and want to stop melting the contacts. It’s that simple.
It seems like a copper wire or a porcelain block are the best solutions so far
I wonder: how many button cells is needed to get the power to melt the contacts? 100? 1000? Or more?
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