Help! My Electromagnet Won't Work!

[KyleMacDonald]

hello everyone, I've spent countless hours and a ton of money on trying to get this work. What I am making is a electromagnet with a decent amount of strength, but mine doesn't work at ALL.
I am using copper megnetic wire and have tried both 9V AND AA. I've included pictures of both my coil and my type of wire, If there is anything you think I'm doing wrong I would LOVE to know, Thank you all!

 

[Simon Bridge]

Welcome to PF;
What do you mean by "a decent amount of strength"?

 

[Introyble]

You probably have shorted the coil. From the picture it looks as if your have tinned your wire to the core.

Do you have an ohm meter?

 

[KyleMacDonald]

I want to pick up be able to hold a small metal ball with it

Welcome to PF;
What do you mean by "a decent amount of strength"?

I want to pick up be able to hold a small metal ball with it

 

[KyleMacDonald]

I dont

You probably have shorted the coil. From the picture it looks as if your have tinned your wire to the core.

Do you have an ohm meter?

I don't actually, is there a way I can avoid this?

 

[davenn]

You probably have shorted the coil. From the picture it looks as if your have tinned your wire to the core.

that really doesn't make sense ... its obvious to see that the wire still has the enamel coating on it

Kyle ... you do realize you have to scrape off a little bit of the enamel coating at the ends of the wire so that you get an electrical contact to the battery ?

Dave

 

[KyleMacDonald]

that really doesn't make sense ... its obvious to see that the wire still has the enamel coating on it

Kyle ... you do realize you have to scrape off a little bit of the enamel coating at the ends of the wire so that you get an electrical contact to the battery ?

Dave

I know, i used to have a load (light) connected in the circuit and it worked, the electricity is flowing through i just don't know my problem

 

[KyleMacDonald]

You probably have shorted the coil. From the picture it looks as if your have tinned your wire to the core.

Do you have an ohm meter?

I will be able to get a multimeter later today, is there anything i should look for?

 

[Introyble]

Yeah, continuity. Turn the meters to ohms Ω

Not sure what kind of meter you have, if you have several ranges for Ω go to something near 200

Your going to put one lead on the core itself. Just pick a spot that isn't covered by wire. Put the other lead on the wire you have been hooking to the positive side of the battery.

Repeat for the wire on the negitive side of the battery.

Watch your meter. Are you getting any reading from either wire?

 

[Carl Pugh]

Chisels are made from hard steel.
Try a nail or a low cost steel bolt.
Scrape the wire ends where you connect to the battery. A knife works OK if you are careful.
The ohms scale on you meter probably won't tell you anything.

 

[pantaz]

Chisels are made from hard steel.
Try a nail or a low cost steel bolt. ...

Also, it appears you have only one layer of wire. Try winding several layers over a shorter length of a bolt.
More battery power will also help. A single 9v battery can't provide very much current.

 

[Simon Bridge]

I want to pick up be able to hold a small metal ball with it

How heavy is the ball?
Have you made sure that the ball can be picked up by a permanent magnet?
Will your electromagnet pick up anything? Paperclip? Iron filings?
Does the battery warm up much when it's in use?

The strength of the electromagnet depends on the current through it, the number of turns, the diameter, and the core material. Generally the relationships are quite complicated so when you are starting out it is a good idea to keep the geometry as simple as you can. It is possible to work out rules of thumb from there (and looking them up of course).

Have you been looking up the theory of electromagnets?
Have you looked through the many similar questions on PF?
Have you tried following one of the many demonstrations on youtube?

A multimeter is an essential tool for messing about with electronics - you must get hold of one.
The Ohms scale can tell you stuff like if all the turns in your coil are conducting or if there is a short that bypasses a lot of them. A simple continuity tester (battery+wires+light-bulb) ca be used to investigate if there is a short to the core though.
You can also investigate the current through the coil and the voltage across it.

You do want an iron core - and I'd keep a small additional load in series too.
It may be possible to figure out what your coils should be capable of if we knew the dimensions.
Looks like about the diameter of an AA battery, on a hardened steel core, quite a small gauge I guess I could count the turns...

 

[jim hardy]

A multimeter is an essential tool for messing about with electronics - you must get hold of one.

it needn't be fancy. I use the $10 black analog one from Wal-Mart.

 

[LowEParticle]

I know, i used to have a load (light) connected in the circuit and it worked, the electricity is flowing through i just don't know my problem

Kyle,

Since you've been working on this for a while I would check the battery to see if it is still alive. You would set your meter to the smallest D.C. Volts scale that is still larger than your battery's normal working voltage. Put the red lead of the meter on the + (positive) terminal of the battery, and the black lead of the meter on the - (negative) terminal of the battery. The volt meter takes very little current from the battery, so if for example you have a 9 volt battery and it only reads 7 or 8 volts on your meter, it is basically a goner and it's time to buy a replacement.

Good luck!
Dave

 

[Runei]

How many windings do you have? When I made a levitator that could levitate a small metal ball, it required something more than 1000 (a thousand) windings.

PS. Well not "required" per se, but that's how many we used, and it wasn't a super-crazy magnet.