help with power supply for foam cutting

.308

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Feb 1, 2003
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Brentwood, TN
I am interested in building a feather burner (same principle as foam cutter) for making my own arrow fletchings. I have read several descriptions where a transformer (train transformer) is used with a nichrome wire. How can I use a PC power supply to do this without the power supply seeing a short and shutting down?

Thanks,
Chris
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VidPro

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all you need is a mondo Wire Wound resister say 50ohms 25watt from a surplus shop.
wire it in series with the 5V side of the power supply, and the nichrome wire strip. Put in a safety fuse 1/2 the max amps of the rated connection, turn the resister to its highest resistance, fire up the power supply, and work it just like a train transformer, cept dont go all the way.

use same size copper wire to move the energy around where you DONT want heat, and the nichrome to where you do.
if you want a nice straight wire (and because solder wont hold it), you shove 2 screws into a flat board, connecting the power to the screws on one side, wrap the wire around the threads, and put a wingnut on top. (of course that would be a non-flamable board)

problem is some comp power supplys have fuses in really hard to get to locations, and are only good for SURGE ratings, but with resistance (somewhere) you can keep the current controlled, and by using the high amperage, low voltage 5v side, should give a small n-chrome wire lenght just the right heat , put a fuse where you can get at it, better to blow the easy to replace one. Cant use a curcuit breaker because it will break slower then the internal power supply fuse which needs to break Fast if it is to save the supply.

a 10A 12v car charger, or a fat low voltage transformer might be better/easier/cheaper , even if high amp computer power supplys are a dime a dozen, most of them dont really handle the juice they claim at all. train transformers (Linear magnetic old school) are a great pick for that, with thier built in resistance or secondary wiring tapping.

then a comp power supply needs a jumper to the standby to get it working without being connected TO a computer (we will assume your not doing this to YOUR computer, mabey like your bosses or something :) so you just do one resister jumper to the comp ps to get it thinking a computer is on there.

when finished working on it, make sure you turn off the power completly, because the screw connection points will corrode faster with the power headed to them, and you dont want to start any more fires than it already will :)
 
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