What would be the steps of making an electromagnet?

Question

This question adds onto the one I asked a while ago, which was (How can I make an electromagnet strong enough to lift a fridge?)

Answer 1

One basic way of making a strong electromagnet is to get a core of easily magnetizable metal, like a thick rod of ordinary steel (not stainless steel), and then wind insulated wire around it to make a solenoid. To make sure you don't blow the circuit in running the house current through the wire, put a light bulb or something in series with it, so that current will be limited. The bigger the bulb, the greater the current, and the more powerful your electromagnet will be, up to solenoid impedence limits. See this link for ideas on how to build powerful AC electromagnets. Most "how to" websites want you to use DC batteries because it's safer, but you don't care about that, right?

The 2nd link describes the difference between "rectified" AC-to-DC electromagnets and true AC electromagnets. No, it's not true that AC electromagnets cannot work.

Answer 2

Lets start small. The process is the same. Take a very large nail and wrap a wire around and around it in a coil. The more coils the stronger. Connect the ends to the terminals on a dry cell and you have a magnet. The stronger the source of electricity the stronger the magnet. Household electricity will not work as it reverses the poles as the current alternates.

Electromagnets are used to lift cars in a junk yard. They use electromagnets because they need to be able to turn it on and off. It must be direct current.

Answer 3

This sounds like you already know how to make an electromagnet but just want to know how to make it stronger. The strength of an electromagnet is proportional to Ni/l, where N is the number of turns of wire, i is the current in the wire and l is the length of the coil. So to make it stronger, make the coil short, but with many turns of wire, and push lots of electric current through that wire. Maybe a hundred Amps. Use heavy wire! Scientists doing experiments on high magnetic fields usually use a smaller number of turns but compensate by using an extremely high current. I think the electromagnetic cranes that lift scrap metal use quite a few turns of wire, and a pretty high current.

Answer 4

Get a core rod made of iron and wrap insulated wire around it several times. Then apply a voltage across the two ens of the wire. You will have an electromagnet. Be careful that the voltage is not too high or you will need to put some resistance in there as the the inductance might not offere sufficient reactance.

Answer 5

i dont know,, but id say You got too much time on your hands. How much Money you got to spend on the obviously Expensive materials and WHY do you want to lift a FRIDGE?