Pure Nickel Sparking When Cut With Disc?

rg12

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My main test for every nickel strip roll I receive is to cut the strip with a dremel disc and see that it doesn't throw sparks.
I once tried a plated steel that I scratched with sand paper and put in salt water and it didn't rust (waited hours, then days, nada) and it WAS nickel plated steel, I could spot weld it super easy.
So since it didn't rust I don't trust that method.

Anyway, today I received a nickel strip from a different supplier and it DID spark when cut.
The feel of the material does feel like pure nickel (nickel feels different than steel and looks less shiny).
I tried to spot weld it and it seemed to work the same (didn't burn under the same power settings I use for pure nickel).

Is there another reliable test?
How can I test resistance in the most reliable way?
 
Is there another reliable test? Magnet.

How can I test resistance in the most reliable way? There are specialized low-resistance ohmmeters that can accurately measure hundredths or thousandths of an ohm. That is the range you need to measure a nickel strip or similar conductor. They use four wires and a calibrated power supply. No ordinary DMM or analog meter is useful for more than a ball-park measurement when you get down around 1 ohm and less. Nickel has four times the resistance of copper but is used because it welds better; that means that 4x the cross section of nickel has the same resistance as a 1x strip of copper. Verify your materials as you are doing and you won't need the fancy ohmmeter.
 
kansas said:
Is there another reliable test? Magnet.

How can I test resistance in the most reliable way? There are specialized low-resistance ohmmeters that can accurately measure hundredths or thousandths of an ohm. That is the range you need to measure a nickel strip or similar conductor. They use four wires and a calibrated power supply. No ordinary DMM or analog meter is useful for more than a ball-park measurement when you get down around 1 ohm and less. Nickel has four times the resistance of copper but is used because it welds better; that means that 4x the cross section of nickel has the same resistance as a 1x strip of copper. Verify your materials as you are doing and you won't need the fancy ohmmeter.

Both steel and nickel are magnetic so that wouldn't tell me anything.
I read that weight is pretty close also.

I have a cell IR tested and each probe has two needles (was always wandering why 2 on each probe), can I use it somehow to measure the resistance?
 
How to test for nickel?
Hold the piece of iron or nickel test paper (point facing out) in the stainless steel tweezers. Wet the test paper with a few drops of saturated sodium chloride using a pipette or eyedropper. Touch the wet test paper to the metal surface. Hold for 5 seconds to allow electrolysis to occur.Sep 12, 2017
Does this help ?
 
Pure nickel does stick to a magnet. If you sand a piece first then dunk it in salt water, that should tell you.
 
fechter said:
Pure nickel does stick to a magnet.

You are correct and I did not know that, thanks for the correction. I do not quickly find any clear statement of the relative attraction of nickel and steel to a magnet, although one source has information suggesting it is a lot less for nickel, like 1/3. So not a reliable way to sort between steel and nickel.
 
I didn't know this until recently also, but I tried it and sure enough the pure nickel sticks pretty good to a magnet, but like you say, only about 1/3 of steel. Sort of like getting sparks with a grinder. They both spark, but steel sparks much more.

There must be a better way to tell.
 
Dunno if it's better, but:

https://www.canada.ca/en/conservation-institute/services/conservation-preservation-publications/canadian-conservation-institute-notes/test-iron-nickel.html
 
It's weird, I know that nickel sparks a little compared to a ton of sparks when cutting steel but all my nickel I imported until this day didn't throw a single spark and the new one is sparking just a bit.
Can it be that it's nickel but a lower grade?
Are there more than one types of nickel used in nickel strips?
 
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