Electromagnets

A big old electromagnet

Electromagnets don’t come bigger than this at my place. A big soft iron cored electromagnet is supporting a drill by the spade bit between the pole faces.
“Continue reading” for power levels and further information plus links…


I got this electromagnet as a throw out via the Uni Chemistry Dept.  I gather it was used for magnetic resonance stuff. Weighs 80 kg. It is ancient and uses cotton covered wire. The frame is solid iron without laminations so is not for AC. Run at only 15.5 V at 9.2 A = 150 W DC here. It feels like the power is much greater than my 1 inch NIB magnets.

I have run this up to 700 W with another power supply. For higher power, I might hook it up to a rectified arc welder (or two). Could do some interesting projects with plasma in a neon tube or liquid oxygen. Perhaps diamagnetic stuff.

Related pages

High currents break up the coil with magnetic forces.   Coin shrinking

Try something else

 Hot Pepper   Hot Pepper

External links

Electromagnet – Wikipedia

Photo Date: Feb 19, 2006

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