Resistors

Has anyone any ideas making resistors in the 1 ohm to 20 ohm range from materials likely to be around the house somewhere?

R
Reply to
Roger Dewhurst
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Tear apart a hair dryer or a toaster for the nichrome.
Reply to
John Fields

I do not have dud one lying around just at the moment.

Roger

Reply to
Roger Dewhurst

5" length of pencil lead ~15R.
Reply to
JeffM

That is the sort of thing!

Thanks.

R >
Reply to
Roger Dewhurst

Iron picture-hanger wire? Aluminum foil? Christmas tinsel (aluminum, not mylar.) Light bulb filament? Copper wire from some transformer or motor? Telephone wire?

Rip apart an old radio or computer or TV?

John

Reply to
John Larkin

Why would you want to? Wattage? Voltage?

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Reply to
Homer J Simpson

To mimic a flat 12 volt lead acid battery. Say 25 watts. 12 volts, more or less.

R

Reply to
Roger Dewhurst

If you are just looking for a dummy load that can handle some power, consider wiring up a parallel array of whatever resistor value is available to get the target R, then immerse the array in liquid.... water will be fine in this case, oil in general. The liquid provides good heat transfer, and if you have a big-enough volume you can run the load for a while before the liquid heats up too much. This trick won't work for continuous duty, but you probably don't need that, I'm guessing.

In the "olden days" there were construction articles in Popular Electronics that used this general approach to make a high-power dummy load for transmitters. They housed the whole works in a gallon paint can filled with oil.

Best regards,

Bob Masta D A Q A R T A Data AcQuisition And Real-Time Analysis

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Reply to
Bob Masta

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Heath used to sell what they called a "Cantenna" which was a 50 ohm
Carborundum Corp. resistor in a one-gallon paint can which was
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Reply to
John Fields

Steel rebar wire. You can buy a 100' roll for a couple of dollars at hardware stores and construction rental stores. Wrap it around a pencil until you get the resistance you want. It will heat up a great deal if enough current is present, so plan on the oil bath cooling or comeup with a way to keep pouring cold water over it.

Reply to
George Jaynes

I hand built a resistor motor starter once using electric radiator elements. Try an appliance parts store - they may have broken ones for free.

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Reply to
Homer J Simpson

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