Has anyone heard about this "Rene 41 resistance wire" I have heard about this being used by a few people at my local B&M and would like to hear some more opinions.
Rene 41 is one of the alloys in the group called superalloys or high-performance alloys and was developed by General Electric for use in the aerospace industry. It is commonly used in gas turbine engines where its high temperature strength, creep resistance, fatigue life, phase stability, and oxidation and corrosion resistance makes it an ideal material for the application. Other examples of superalloys are Hastelloy, Inconel, Waspaloy, Haynes alloyes, Incoloy and others. These alloys are also used in power generation, space vehicles, nuclear reactors, bomb casings, chemical processing vessels and many other uses.
If you are using cutting wire longer than 3 or 4 feet, this wire is recommended, or if you just want a wire that will last almost forever, use it for any length.
This wire is tempered unlike nichrome which usually is annealed. This means that it is stiffer and springs back more than nichrome of the same diameter.
The resistance if René wire is about 10% higher than nichrome wire. You can still use the nichrome wire calculator --using 28 gauge nichrome will give you close to the same electrical requirements as for 27 gauge René.
if it takes awhile to heat up then its no go for me hahaNothing special. It's quite thick and low resistance (4.02 ohms/ft or 13.2 ohms/m) wire intended for foam cutting. It is available only in AWG 27 (0,36 mm). When wrapping around a small diameter is prone to cracking. Keep this in mind when wrapping around screws. The biggest problem is that it slowly heats up, it is quite inert and needs a lot of power. I tried it on the dripper and kayfun and it's very durable, can last forever, but Kanthal works better for me and is much cheaper.