Carbon fibre/fiber heating wire.

Not to butt in, but: putting a 3D printer into a 110°C enclosure is probably not going to be very good for its life span. If it's only metal-on-metal mechanical parts with a bowden extruder feeding from outside the enclosure, maybe, but if there are circuit boards in that box, they're not likely to be super happy. (Unless you've got a milspec printer or something.)

Honestly sounds like an interesting way to provide a little supplemental heat at batteries.

09Klr650

I'll let you know how it goes

Gordo

I believe so. I've never cut one open, though.

Loscha

Is this what’s user in electric blanket

Slot1Gamer

I'm not sure the best option for that. 100C sounds quite hot for this wire. I wonder if they do the PCB style heater in that size.

Big Clive

I have a large "457.2mm diameter x 457.2mm" print area 3d printer and am looking to make a heated enclosure would CF heating wire like this be good to 90º-110ºc. I would rather not use Kanthal.

Zach Allin

<a href="https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/06/100629094153.htm" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/06/100629094153.htm</a>

Dustin

Carbon and Glass are also fairly inert in the human body. Asbestos, not so much... "These researchers addressed the paradox of how asbestos fibers that kill cells could cause cancer, since a dead cell should not be able to grow and form a tumor. They found that when asbestos kills cells, it does so by inducing a process called "programmed cell necrosis" that leads to the release of a molecule called high-mobility group box 1 protein (HMGB1). HMGB1 starts a particular type of inflammatory reaction that causes the release of mutagens and factors that promote tumor growth. The researchers found that patients exposed to asbestos have elevated levels of HMGB1 in their serum. "

Dustin

The later Mountain Breeze units used a yellow plastic sleeve to cover the circuitry. I'm not sure if it is actually a Kapton type material or not.

Big Clive

I seem to recall you did a tear-down video on one of the vintage units and it employed what you're describing wrapped in kapton tape. I have an old anti-ESD monitor base-unit in a plastic enclosure of about the same size so I'll use that I think.. If I listen carefully, I might hear the scream of those pesky allergen particles as they get nuked by charged particles and fall to the floor dead. I'll let you know if my son has a positive result from using the thing...

Gordo

While breathing in carbon fiber and fiberglass is certainly irritating, it's nothing in the scale of danger compared to asbestos. Your lungs will actually dissolve fiberglass, and carbon fibers are about an order of magnitude larger in diameter than asbestos. Glass can't embed since it gets eaten away, and while carbon fiber theoretically can, it's much slower and often gets expelled over time instead. Carbon nanotubes and nanofibers are more in the same size range as asbestos, I always used to wear a respirator when I dealt with either of them in a loose form.

Only if it was single core. The feed and return being together tend to cancel each other out.

Big Clive

Won't you get inductive effects from a big roll of cable, as well?

Daddy Bearcat

Yeah, good warning about fine hard fibers like that. I guess some are worse than others for various microscopic reasons, but I tend to wear a good respirator when there's any doubt anyway. Also, the only thing that would worry me about this heating cable is if it would get higher resistance hot spots in it if it was flexed a lot, possibly leading to catastrophic failure?

Jamie Magin

It's a very easy circuit to build if you use the simple PCB-less design of gluing the capacitors together and zig-zagging the diodes along the row. A piece of plastic tubing like plumbing pipe makes a neat case. As for noise, the only hiss you'll get is from the tips of the needles.

Big Clive

Thanks Clive. I'm from Edinburgh but live in Northern Ireland so I'll be going for 240V operation. I like the simplicity of your voltage multiplier ladder and silent (from a RFI point-of-view) operation - I'm one of those radio amateurs that you allude to periodically so noisy circuitry (at RF) doesn't thrill me.. It's a noisy world we live in..

Gordo

To test the insulation, dump the whole lot (without the ends) in a tub of water and test with the insulation tester :) I'm pretty sure that's how cable is generally being tested just after extrusion where it cools in a water bath. It's so simple to test this way and stop production line of leakage is found.

Per 'Zapro' Jensen

Your mention of Vaseline or silicone grease reminded me of the day I put it around the HT sparkplug plug on my Trail motorbike to save me having to reach down while riding and give the plug cap a wipe to remove salty water causing misfiring {motorbike electrics leading up to 1980 were poor} ... I never thought grease would be such a good conductor. A shocking experience. John

John Harrison

We had a 1 gallon can of Carbon Tetrachloride my dad used it to clean his neck ties and left the rags around while I repaired motorbikes, I did not know the danger back then. Memory flash - age 10y he gave me "nilfisk vacuum 1960" connector to rewire but he forgot to check that is was still plugged in .... big flash burn and a smell from hands and bum, I learned that day to check first but my dad still remained unsafe. Later at an apprentice training school 2 of us were given a 3ph motor on a wooden pallet to wire everything was checked OFF but later the lecturer wanted to heat a pie in the oven next to us....... it was when we connected the final wire to our surprise the motor STARTED guess we were luck that day. John

John Harrison

I did consider doing a high voltage insulation test between the ends and a sink full of water. The multiplier ioniser circuit is best suited to 220V and higher supplies. If using a lower voltage supply like 120V you may need to step it up first with a small transformer, or alternatively could use one of the little electronic ioniser modules sold on eBay for air conditioners.

Big Clive

I used trichloroethylene at work as an electrical degreasing solvent and also used it to weigh down the wax in my experimental lava lamps. Carbontetrachloride was also a popular degreaser back then. In the motor rewind department they had a tank of solvent with a layer of water on it to prevent evaporation. Your guy who passed away wouldn't even have known it was happening with oxygen displacement. He would have just drifted off to sleep.

Big Clive

I've found a picture on another listing that shows the carbon fibre being folded back over the insulation, pushed into the metal tube and then crimped. I wonder if the crimping is actually recommended by the manufacturer. If it wasn't crimped the use of adhesive lined heatshrink could help restrain the connection. I used to use self regulating heating tape when I worked with Hussmann Refrigeration. We used adhesive lined heatshrink to terminate it and then fed it down inside the condensate drain pipes of freezer room evaporators. I always thought that was a bit odd and wondered if it caused moisture ingress issues over time.

Big Clive

If you submerse it in slightly salty water, you could check for leakage with your 2000V leakage tester. Btw, nice one on the ioniser comment - my son has bad eczema &amp; asthma and I've ordered in a bunch of 1N4007 diodes &amp; HV caps to build the circuit from your website..

Gordo

Good stuff, Clive!

Michael Thompson

Sorry a bit more, hope you do not mind Clive. Look down into the description and diagrams of how they mangle a connect - HOOTING www.alibaba.com/product-detail/Hot-Sale-Carbon-fibre-heating-wire_60756773692.html I also found this www.xscarbonfiber.com/En_ArticleShow-250.html Many thanks for the warning about the dangers of fine fibres, sad to say when I was a kid they used boiler insulation to fill in the potholes in the yard outside the Blacksmiths shop were I worked with my dad so I guess I might be well insulated on the inside. In the 1980s we converted an epoxy powder paint jig burn off oven from fire brick and asbestos rope to ceramic fibre, the energy saving was tremendous; the burn off oven looked like a big safe, I could stand inside it, also there was a second burner to burn the smoke. Burn time reduced to less that 1/2 Previously you had to wait ages before you could get near the paint jigs to lift them out. Now you could open the door and after the initial waft of heat you could reload the oven with a new jig The jigs were for powder coating the covers for gas fires, tumble driers, cooker hoods and water heaters so they were quite large and after about 50+ cycles of extra layers of over spray on the jig arms the components would not fit. The nails that held the components and made the electrical connection were easy to clean every time. I recall back then I was told we had the largest trichloroethylene degreasing oven in Europe (I think they are banned now) Sad to say we did have a fatality with a chap working on his own in one. There were also heated dip tanks with chiller units to keep the vapour down They would clean just about anything motorbike parts paint brushes all like new. Trichloroethylene is not the same as Trichloroethane (this was used in tipex correction fluid) trichloroethylene is quite dense so that water floats on it in the save visual way that oil floats on water Sorry I digress..... John

John Harrison

More waffle, I hope it helps, feel free to repost the idea. Black mould in my house corners of the room behind furniture and window / patio door surrounds. I use and empty Ambi Pur 3volution about 1.8 watts on an extension cord to create a bit of warmth and air flow in the hidden corners of the room. UPVC Capping Fascia Board cladding around the walls were the windows are. My house was built in 1970 and has a solid floor, the skirting board nails have rotted even though there is no rising damp, this year I have run my Meaco unti a lot more and not had to window squeegee once, my house is usually 45 - 50 % RH and if I do not use the Meaco then it goes over 60% in a day or so. my Kärcher Window died after first use 2 years ago due to corrosion on the circuit board what a crap piece of kit.... I plan to run it off an external battery direct to the motor. John

John Harrison

I wonder if the copper tubes for the joint is meant to fold back the carbon over the red sleeve so that the two red ends butt up to each other, would this make a better copper connection ? However it would not prevent moisture creep unless a glue was used on the heat shrink. BTW this is worth a read, we used something the same back in the 1980's for our water evaporating coolers that were outside (we referred to them as LEGIONELLA units, we had corrosion problems due to all the disinfectant stuff we used ) www.iceandsnowsystems.co.uk/products/trace-heating.html A nice diagram of the self regulating element John

John Harrison

A short length of 12v around the drain of a condensing boiler drain pipe may have saved a lot of breakdowns in recent days.

Charleso

Big Clive after dark, it’s all fun and games until the thermal imaging camera comes out... 😆

Lostngone

A good use given recent UK weather would be frost protection, especially of pipes.

Charleso

One of the suggested uses is for pet warmth. Even better that it can be low voltage if desired.

Big Clive

Late post. I'm quite nocturnal.

Big Clive

This would be great for keeping the floor of a dog house warm.

Charles Bruckner

Early up or a late post? :)