Where can I find a u-shaped soft iron to make Ed's PMH?

Comments

• Magneticus_Attractus

  February 2023

  @Forrest myself I just use Whirlpool dishwasher drain pumps. For $10 you get a mini PMH. Most of the soft iron is used in things like those.
  
  
  
  I thought it was ironic how Edward had water features and the water pumps use the basic PMH to pump water.
  
  I gave up looking for soft iron years ago when I figured out where it is all going.
• poughkeepsieblue

  February 2023

  I dont know much about metal working but from what i understand, iron can be annealed, removing slag, and making it softer, easier to work, and easily changes from a magnet, to a non magnet iron.
  
  Ed mentions tempering magnets, but thats different, and im not sure if ed uses soft iron or tempered iron different. The way he alludes to them, i cant quite make any sense of it yet.
  I just dont have the knowledge in it to make heads or tails.
  
  But, i wouldnt put it past ed to do his own metallurgy, and if he was into wire, i wouldnt put it past him to make his own crucible, and perhaps his bbq pit was used to fire metals.
  
  I know its not related to iron, but i believe ed was collecting silver dollars, and dimes, which were silver at the time, to amass enough silver to melt down for wire and other experiments.
  He was clearly asking for dollars and dimes, and he had the bbq pit to melt them down. He also had wire producing tools in his toolshop. And silver is a good metal for electricity and uv collection, it just oxidixes to all hell.
  
  So, my answer, is maybe if you need soft iron, you should make the hottest fire you can manage, and melt down some steel to get the slag out, and then youll have some soft iron.
  If the people of the iron age could do it, why cant we do it? We live in the modern age... shouldnt we know how to produce the basic metals we take for granted everyday?
  
  Where to get soft iron?
  
  Learn how to make it
  Then make it
  
• Magneticus_Attractus

  February 2023

  Soft iron doesn't have the memory of being magnetized. With hardened steel it will keep the magnetism.
  
  I have a cold rolled steel rod that I put multiple magnet poles along the rod depending on where I place the coils. A magnetic compass shows the rod going N-S-N-S-N-S.
  
  The mini PMH's are made from multiple sheets of soft iron, pretty much any transformer has soft iron.
  
  
  
  This experiment helped me understand why the soft iron is stacked in layers. FYI the PMH is also called a C core and transformers use a E core. Both are made from soft iron not hardened steel.
  
  
• Heyjoe

  November 2023

  Forrest said:

  I am ready to try some experiments that involve Ed's PMH and have had to luck trying to find it.

  Iron filings are Soft Iron. Use a magnet, go collect some metal filings in the beach sand, melt it down and put it into a mold to make the U bar.
  
  
  
  
  
• dracul4u

  January 2024

  Go to a place that fabricates U-bolts. they should have a machine that can bend 1.5 inch steel. Use whatever steel they have on hand. make sure that the legs are perfectly straight and alligned, and when they cut them down to size, that they are flatly alligned - bring your own bar to test. it cost about $120 for me, the coils cost $350 to fabricate at a motor-winding shop
• DuncanNorman

  October 4

  My virginal post on this forum so if I balls it up apologies . Soft pure iron isn't easy to come by as your learning especially if your hoping to build a full size original PMH .
  I suggest if your near things maritime and particularly a breakers. old anchor chain links are a great source
  Iron was used because of its resistance to rusting.
  Incidentally I vaguely remember seeing PMH holder with a bowl of water on top showing Chladni figures does anyone have or remember that video ?
  
  Kind regards Duncan