i have heard of people using kanthal with nickel on a TC build. what is the purpose of this? and does it not affect the TC capability?
also, can this be done with kanthal and Ti while maintaining TC capabilities?
id like to try clapton style coils, but using Ti only for a clapton would get pricey considering. any advice?
I've tried both Kanthal/Ni and K/Ti in a VS DNA40. I did it with Ni so the Kanthal would allow me to clamp down on the wire harder without breaking because Ni is so soft. Ti is harder and easier to work with that way but I tried it for the same reason also. Both of these combinations work well if the setups are properly designed.
Doing this changes the temperature calibration, so when you set 400 deg the actual wire temp is not going to be limited to 400 deg. What I do to calibrate it manually is do a dry cotton burn at low temperature and increase the temp in steps until it just starts to scorch. That is close to 410 deg F.
I'm in Canada and bought both Ti and Ni from a site in Europe,
www.zivipf.com . They sell 80' of 30 gauge grade 1 Ti for $10 USD. For me considering the shipping cost to Canada it was the best deal, but I bet you can find a better deal from a US supplier if you're in the US.
Keep in mind you should not be dry burning Ti because if you get it hot enough to glow it will oxidize quickly.