where to buy soft iron rods

these days a good substitute is mild steel. I'd try a hardware outlet, if they dodn't have what I wanted I'd go to a metal supplier like "metalcorp"

steel tie wires are mild steel, fencing wire is not many bolts are mild steel.

I used to cut lengths of wire from coat hangers and bundle them to make a soft iron core.

news:rec.crafts.metalworking is where you want to ask. You don't say where you are located, whch makes a huge difference of where you can find it.

I am located in a metalworkers hell...... I have found soft steel rods on ebay.. a good thing if there are no local outlets.

LLB in Laredo TX

Check with various steel suppliers for 1005 stock too, if complete purity isn't crucial.

You could also ask on alt.crafts.blacksmithing.

How soft is "soft"?

Most steel yards stock 1006 in coils that some of them straighten, up to about 9/16" diameter.s Obviously, hot rolled is cheaper.

If you don't know the difference between hot rolled steel and cold rolled steel, go to:

Pete Stanaitis

-----------------

Michael A. Terrell wrote:

I'm in canada. ebay doesn't seem to have much when I search for "soft iron core".

Sounds as if you are actually looking for magnetically soft iron rather than mechanically soft iron (they are fairly closely related, but not an exact match).

If it's for an AC application, take a hacksaw to a microwave oven transformer. If it's a DC application, look for hot rolled, low carbon steel. probably AISI 1005 will be as good as you can get. High silicon magnetic steels tend to be fairly hard to obtain in small quantities and expensive except by robbing existing equipment (like MOTranfromers).

Mark Rand RTFM

On Jun 29, 3:30=A0am, Ken Williams wrote:>

"Soft iron" isn't the common term. What do you need it for? There are several applications for "soft" iron that require somewhat different properties, such as severe bending, forge welding and electromagnets.

Would large spikes do?

jsw

What about pulsed DC? thats considered AC?

Its for electromagnet coils that will be pulsed with DC. I want a good iron core to concentrate the magnetic flux.

Somewhere in my memory banks, I remember a small transformer shaped like a toilet paper roll, but much smaller in diameter that has thin iron rods for a core. I am thinking it was in one or more of the old hand-crank telephones I tore up as a kid. Used the hand crank magneto to catch crawdads in the creek. I remember the transformer being red or orange with black bakelite mounting brackets on the ends.

Just what size rods do you want? Could you use iron wire and make your own "rods"? If so, check out a craft material store or a florist shop. They may still carry paper covered iron wire.

Paul

Tehn you need mu metal. Hard as hell to find!

Steve R.

I had one of those too. The core is a bundle of ordinary black iron wire, the same stuff as sold is better hardware stores to this day.

The black oxide film should serve to insulate the wires from one another. If not, dipping in varnish and allowing to dry before assembly into a core will do.

For pulsed DC, people most often use ordinary 1018 steel for one off projects, as the eddy currents will soon die down and 1018 is easily bought in small quantities. Annealing the 1018 probably improves its magnetic properties, but I don't know how many people bother with this.

Joe Gwinn

Coat hanger wire is made out of soft iron. Cut to length and pack into a cardboard ( or whatever ) tube and wind your coil on that.

You should be able to find a lot of them. They seem to multiply in closets. ;-)

Al

n't say

Sounds like you're building off some old book's plans from the teens or twenties. Wrought iron isn't a common thing anymore, low-carbon steel is about it. One of those old books I have uses black iron wire cut into lengths and stuffed into a cardboard tube for magnet cores. You could use lengths of baling wire, varnished for insulation purposes. Or, there's plenty of dud transformers around, bandsaw the windings off and chop up the silicon steel core laminations for whatever you want. If you need specific magnetic properties, you can get rods made of powdered iron or ferrite, the hams use them for various RF projects. Lots of things out there a lot more available for magnet projects than the "soft iron wire" that used to was. And a lot better, magnetic property-wise. Or just look for solenoids on the surplus market, plenty of them around, too, from the vending machine business.

Stan