Voltage is actually around 121.25V-126.75V wherever I'v checked it in our house (~5% tolerance). Most appliances are rated 115VAC, but the real voltage is generally 125V/250V. There's a pretty big tolerance in the allowed voltages between providers and electrical systems. Single phase: =>106V, =212V and =

+theLuigiFan0007 True, but the point is the same... when Joule heating like this, halving the rms voltage reduces the mean power output to 25%, it's just due to the output being directly related to the square of the input voltage. Of course assuming that the temp coefficient of resistance of the wire is not just linear, but flat across the temp range it will be used at. As far as the 110 vs 115 v 125VAC... household power (as shown in the video and as you observed) should be thought of as 120VAC nominal plus or minus 5%. The 115VAC you mention appliances being rated for, that's just the nameplate value and they should be able to handle plus or minues 10% of that value without real worry. The 126.75VAC(rms) that you measured is on the very high side but nothing I would be calling out an electrician for. I might even suggest that the higher readings are from locations with less feet of copper between the outlet and the distribution board/breaker box.

JimmyDB - Had forgotten to take into account the exponential power draw with voltage increases for the same resistance. Thanks for the tip. 10% tolerance is a great thing indeed, unlike the regulators I build for digital electronics (CPUs, Video chips, etc). 0.5% or less tolerance. Except Atmel chips like the ATmega 238P (1.8-5.5VDC)... they're pretty robust. Funny thing is about my voltage, the outlets in my room are the exact diagonal opposite side of the house as the breaker panel, and all the outlets are within about 5% on the readings. I guess the ancient wiring isn't so bad after all. Besides being ungrounded, of course :D. I'v gotten a bit of a prickle off power supplies that need to be ground referenced for safety reasons and had to use adaptors for. More accurately it was like _"huh, this feels odd... _*_touches harder_*_ AH F***.... Note to self: neon sign transformers must be grounded"_. XD I'v noticed on days the voltage is a hint on the high side there's significantly less load (less harsh temps, a line gets switched off somewhere for maintenance, etc) or it's usually during the late night or early morning. I guess they don't compensate for small grid sections in real time.

+theLuigiFan0007 Been there and done that with faulty/missing grounds... lol, it can wake you up faster than coffee... or knock you out even quicker... luckily, I have only been knocked out once when 'becoming one with the circuit' but have come in contact with a number of boxes that try to tickle you when touched. Interesting about the small grid, each type of power plant design has different ways of dealing with grid loads and at home we see maybe 5 good drops or spikes in the line per day (according to UPS logs). Our electric company keeps swapping out and adding transformers in this area as well as some jerk around here [looks around] seems to keep doing something to cause them to spill their oil.

JimmyDB - Must be the squirrels trying to steal copper again. They never learn because it's always too late.....

HEYY THATS COOL

+j_sum1 j_sum1 I tried to find some alumina silicate fire bricks once, the closest I could find was pizza oven bricks. if you happen to come across some let me know

+Energy Unleashed yeah, I used the pizza oven bricks for an arc furnace and produced some calcium carbide, they did the job but they didn't hold up very long and eventually cracked and fell apart

+Energy Unleashed I should have used a push rod but I figured if I took it in short bursts I could just poke it in there with my hand. Plus, the video was kind of funny. I will be making stuff like calcium oxide, calcium carbide, and phosphorus. I will probably also use it for small aluminum castings, and preparing silver shot.

if you dont mind me asking, would a PID temp controller be able to connect to the heating element and control the temperature? or would it only tell the temperature, from which you would adjust a seperate device.

He needed a proper sample size to determine statistical significance.

What are welding gloves made out of? I got pair of thick yellow leather gloves from Harbour Point and they are nice but they don't protect from heat very well.

Also leather, but they're a bit thicker than the conventional leather gloves and are probably also treated with some flame retardant that'll lessen the chance of it catching fire near (or touching) hot objects. They aren't (nearly) completely heat-resistant though, so you should NEVER grab a hot object even with welding gloves on (sure, it'll avoid you getting instant 2nd degree burns from the hot object, but you'll still feel the heat through the gloves). Use metal tongs instead. BTW the welding gloves also come handy from protecting your hands as you move them near yellow to white hot objects. You see they're so hot that even the heat they radiate is more than enough for burning your hands without gloves.

I uncoiled the elements as you suggest but then put a piece of 1.2mm stainless tubing over them and crimped down on the kanthal. Small hole through insulation and stainless tubing is a modest heat sink.

+Minipac S I was also thinking they looked a bit close together. We don't need no indoor fireworks going on. Or even brushing it with your hand for that matter. Hot and electrified aren't exactly healthy. XD

He was running it at 100V. That's more of an 'educational experience' than a 'horror story'. I agree that it's silly to keep it like that though.

+Luc Serre I ordered one from China on eBay about 2 weeks ago... it's on the way!

+Doug's Lab Would be nice to put a PID temperature controller on it too.

@@DougsLab did you burn down your lab with this kiln?

firebrick and nichrome heating wire will get you started.

That red machine is Voltage regulator. It lets you change Voltage so you wouldn't blow up a fuse with that heating wire hooked up directly to the power outlet and it also lets you change the temperature (more Voltage = more heat).

Ernestas Titas Thanks \o

@Ernestas Titas would it be a problem to use a motor speed controller/dimmer to regulate voltage?

The heating element is resistance wire used for electric stoves, you can find it on ebay

+David Zed Yes, it is starting to get to temperatures where the light can damage eyesight.

Yes and no, IR rather than UV, (cataracts rather than sunburned corneas)

Yeah. Then it was not very good to put the copper strips inside the spiral the way he did (he shud simply have carved out some more space in the brick). It kept the spiral from overheating, but the copper do melt on the inside (just like it did in the crucible) and make contact with the element. That might destroy the wire. The best thing is, to put the spirals on ceramic tubes so they can radiate free in all directions, but it's hard to do on a furnace this small.

+Freeze Dried Girolles Yeah. He should sew some gloves from an emergency blanket.

Robert Haney you can buy a kiln for around 400 bucks, probably less used, and those get to 2800.

Dude, you can literally do this by hand. its like 2 USD and takes 5 mins.

​@@Inesophet Well the variac is the main problem the heating wire I managed to find easly yet all Variacs i seem to find are quite weak and expensive.

@@ted_van_loon Variac is not really important. Just use maths to calculate how long your coil should be. Stay 25% under what your home wiring is rated for and you should not have a problem. Heatcontrol is best handled with PIDs and not a variac since input current and final temperature do not correspond well together. Thats also much cheaper. A PID with a good heatprobe costs around 30USD while a good variac that can drive a freaking furnace will be 10x that.

It's nichrome wire. Available off eBay or Amazon.

It's nichrome wire. Available off eBay or Amazon.

It's nichrome wire. Available off eBay or Amazon.

Sorry about that, it kept giving me an error, I thought it wasn't going through.

Sorry, it kept giving me an error. I didn't know the comment went through. :/