Electromagnet question

Fri Jun 10, 2005 7:44 pm by J Dawg

Mods, I'm sorry for having so many threads going at once, but this question needs an answer ASAP. Thanks.

I'm working on building an electromagnet as part of my final physics project. For this part i have a nail about 4 in (10cm or so) wound with 26 gauge magnet wire.

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Now, on this lovely diagram, invision the wraps starting at the center, moving all the way to the right edge, then back to the center layered over right side, then out to the left all the way, then back to the center layered over the left side. The problem is, for all these wraps, and it is a lot, (they are wrapped very tightly, with no space between), the electromagnet that's produced when i hook it up is fairly paltry. Barely enough to pick up a small washer, which the nail's natural magnetic properties can almost do on its own. I've tried upping the voltage as high as 36V, but it doesn't seem to do much good. Am I wrapping wrong here?

Sat Jun 11, 2005 1:06 am by The Evil Thing

Firstly, you did rememeber to insulate the wire and not to let the nail contact the wire? It sounds like somewhere you have a short circuit. You can pump as much voltage as you like into your circuit but you don't want to be using a disproportionate amount of power to pick up small metal objects.

If not then field strength is dependent on current so you should hook up an ammeter to see what your current is. If that's fine then give me some more information and I'll see what I can find.

By the way, you should have at least 300 turns to get a decent solenoid.

Then again, if you're really desperate, use magnetite and pretend its just plain steel (that way you can explain its latent magnetism

)

Edited by - The Evil Thing on 6/11/2005 3:44:30 AM

Sat Jun 11, 2005 1:57 am by Chips

Its been sooooo long since I did physics that I am not sure I remember;

However, I think you need to remember the field generated by the wire. Is it the right hand rule, or left hand whatever? Two fingers and a thumb - something like field direction, induction, current. If your wire goes opposite to earlier winds of itself (not sure from your description) then it will cancel it out fairly quickly. I would just go with a good long nail, good long wire, and wrap it around tightly and closely. After that, if you wish, do the same over the top to give a double wind - although someone with more knowledge will hopefully correct me on this

Sat Jun 11, 2005 3:17 am by Arania

Chips you damn genius!
hes right, the field is cancelling, youve got the equivelent of two attracting magnets put end-to-end there. i would advise starting from one end, winding all the way up, before jumping the remaining wire back to the start and redoing it.
Ive managed to make a good Rail pistol with bell wire on a half-foot long paper tube using a 12-volt Motorcycle battery, could shoot a nail pretty damn quick.
Oh, by the way, an assembly like that will overheat VERY quickly, thus resulting in higher resistance in the wire, and reduced magnetism. i would advise quick pulses when running, or failing that, a fan to keep it cool (Or, even better, a water or LOX cooling system to keep the temp down

)

Sat Jun 11, 2005 8:05 am by J Dawg

All of what all of you say turned out to be true. Upon closer examination, I did accidently reverse the direction of my windings on the left side of the nail (using enamel insulated magnet wire, of course). This magnet is part of a motor I'm building for this project. I was charged to come up with something unique by the teacher, so I'm planning on building a somewhat traditional armature, but instead of using permanent magnets, using a very large coil of wire that will create a sufficient magnetic field to run the motor. Hopefully. I'll post some pictures in a few days when its completed. Thanks!

Sat Jun 18, 2005 2:29 pm by Alpha-Leader

@ Arania I was talking to eh_steve awhile back about railguns but I couldnt remember a site that had instructions. Do you know of any?

Sat Jun 18, 2005 6:26 pm by J Dawg

I'll post some pictures for you folks when i get around to it. The motor only ran marginally due to interference from the nails and not having the correct permanent magnets to run it. Now that my large stock of magnet wire has arrived I plan on taking on some more ambitious projects in the near future. I'll keep you updated.

Mon Jun 20, 2005 9:28 am by The Evil Thing

alpha-leader:
Wikipedia have a good page on it.

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