You could probably pull off kanthal on ni200 in TC. In a regular clapton, the difference in the resistance of the core and the outer wire is usually great enough that all of the current jumps to the core. With a nickel core, the difference is just that much greater. In theory, this should actually make for a coil with fewer natural shorts, if it has any at all.
That being said, it would probably best to not let that outer kanthal touch the posts at all. Have bare nickel at the connection site and it should work out just fine. That way, it should only read the nickel. I can see no reason why that wouldn't work. In this circuit, the kanthal should act as an insulator. You can have the wraps touching and it still won't short, since the super-low-res nickel core isn't making contact with itself at any point.
You may want to oxidize the wire with a torch though. Shorts in the outer wire could be problematic. I don't see this being too much of an issue, but it'll definitely be something to keep in mind. Still, I think the real question is gonna be whether or not your TC device can pump out enough joules to heat all of that extra mass.
I'm not sure what benefit you would see from claptoning kanthal on nickel and running it in power mode. The resistance should be close to that of the nickel alone, so it probably won't work at al unless you make some big coils with thin wire.
Now, claptoning nickel around kanthal might actually work, but this goes against what typically makes a clapton viable. The whole idea is to use a higher-resistance wire so that you don't have permanent shorts and uneven heating. The outer wire is supposed to be dead weight. It serves a dual purpose as a heat sink and a self-wicking surface. It's meant to down-regulate temperature and bolster wicking capabilities.
Though, I wonder if using nickel on the outside would yield an outer wrap with a similar resistance to the core. That could be interesting. Electrically, it should behave more like a parallel coil than a traditional clapton. You'd have a clapton with an active outer wrap, whereas the outer wrap is usually heated by the inner. Might make for a much faster coil. You might be able to get away with using thicker wire.
THAT would be truly revolutionary. I have my doubts, though. It would be tough to get something that didn't read too low to get the shorts out of. And one short in the nickel might just melt it outright.
Interesting ideas. I may have to give these a shot myself. You got me stumped, heh.
