Looking for source of pure iron bar stock?

I need some 2" diameter iron round and square stock. I see it available in Europe but can't find anything in the US.

It needs to be at least 99.8% pure iron. I am NOT talking about cast, malleable, ductile or wrought iron. Or any type of steel.

This is for the construction of an electromagnet so it needs to be iron. I don't want to use very low carbon steel. It is a distant second choice if it's all that's available.

The trade name is "Armco magnet iron". It is also sometimes called "Soft Swedish Steel".

sounds like durabar worth a call to ask em anyway.
then again if it's that special that euro source maybe the only one

Looks like these guys carry it. There is a distributor in Ontario, Canada.
ARMCO soft ingot iron - Condition Online small quantity sources - Composite materials - Goodfellow

Carpenters did magnet iron, I used to have one of their catalogues many years ago.


https://www.cartech.com/globalassets/literature-files/CRS_product-line-card.pdf


Soft Swedish Steel trade name was REMCO

SKF company I think.

I needed some for the same application as you. Are you building an electron microscope?
I think I still have a chunk, how much do you need?

I got it here:

Iron Rod FE007980 - Goodfellow Catalogue

I used to buy pure iron bars from Wagner company, I used it for blacksmithing as a wrought iron substitute. I dont think they sell it anymore, they were importing from Europe somewhere.
I may still have some, how much and what sizes do you need?

Are you sure that 1018 won't work? It's pretty soft, and one can anneal it as well, to get rid of the effects of cold rolling.

Joe Gwinn said:

Are you sure that 1018 won't work? It's pretty soft, and one can anneal it as well, to get rid of the effects of cold rolling.

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The pure iron is for its electro magnetic properties not softness

Rob F. said:

The pure iron is for its electro magnetic properties not softness

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Physical and magnetic softness come together in iron alloys. Electro iron isn't all that much better than 1018, which is far easier to source. In most cases, one can just use a bigger hunk of 1018.

A classic example is W1 water-hardening steel: If you harden it by heat and quench, is becomes a harder magnet as well - more like a permanent magnet. If you anneal it, it loses its permanent-magnet properties.

Joe Gwinn said:

Physical and magnetic softness come together in iron alloys. Electro iron isn't all that much better than 1018, which is far easier to source. In most cases, one can just use a bigger hunk of 1018.

A classic example is W1 water-hardening steel: If you harden it by heat and quench, is becomes a harder magnet as well - more like a permanent magnet. If you anneal it, it loses its permanent-magnet properties.

Click to expand...

Could be it's for an A.C. application.....

digger doug said:

Could be it's for an A.C. application.....

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In that case, the iron must be laminated, with a layer of insulating varnish between sheets. For this, the standard material is silicon transformer steel (used for motors too).

What is the OP's application? Hmm. He wanted 2" diameter bar. If this is an AC magnet, we really need to talk.

Best I can tell 1018 has 95% the saturation field strength of pure iron. Do you really need more than that? And are you even hitting saturation with a cylindrical core?

The application is a DC electromagnet running off rectified 240V for about 80,000 ampere turns. I do need iron as steel of any type will have residual magnetism after the current has been turned off. The less carbon and other impurities the better it will work. The magnetic permeability of mild steel is also not as good as iron but some of the mild steels are not too bad. I would like to use purified iron 99.95% but it is probably way too expensive assuming I could find it so 99.8% is fine. The electromagnet will be used to magnetize ALNICO magnets cast in aluminum so needs to be as strong as possible. I just need a few feet of 2" round and square stock.

Thank you to those who made recommendations as to suppliers of the iron.

The attached picture is similar to what I am building.

Ahhhhh...a magnet-O charger.

Should have said so in the first place.

I was just going to suggest "Kane Magnetics" as a supplier of a powder metal substitute.
But alas, they are gone:
What the Heck Happened to the Magnet Industry? – Magnetics Magazine

For that, make the base core bigger than needed by a good margin, The limits are going to be in the pole adapters (the blocks on top in photo), anyway, and if you want to make them of soft iron, that's a decent idea.

Those always have the problem that the air gaps are the biggest limit on flux density (they always are, in any magnetic circuit). Between the pole adapters and the core, within the core if built up, and between pole adapters and the magnet in the device. That last one is usually the biggie, as the magnet is often the rotating part with a deliberate air gap..

magnetizing rotor externally, and slipping into the assembly is often the best idea, since the external structure is not there to shunt magnetizing flux, You need to do it with no gap from charger to structure as you dlip the rotor in, or you can lose magnetic strength. Pole adapters need to semi-enclose the rotor, just like the external structure.

Magnets in pot metal flywheels are never that strong anyhow, because of the air gap and because they have no "keeper" most of the time. Some magnetos and generators are similar, they have an air gap, and not much structure when the rotor is at 90 deg to the normal magnetic path, so they are less critical..

Laverda said:

I need some 2" diameter iron round and square stock. I see it available in Europe but can't find anything in the US.

It needs to be at least 99.8% pure iron. I am NOT talking about cast, malleable, ductile or wrought iron. Or any type of steel.

This is for the construction of an electromagnet so it needs to be iron. I don't want to use very low carbon steel. It is a distant second choice if it's all that's available.

The trade name is "Armco magnet iron". It is also sometimes called "Soft Swedish Steel".

Click to expand...

i believe it is a high silca low carbon steel for transformers and stuff. it probably machines poorly and you would need to special order it and often many places dont allow small orders. only type i have seen is sheetmetal that is laminated for transformers somehow thats more efficient

Yes, a magneto charger is what it is. The magnetos I will be charging are rotating coil type. The ALNICO magnet is at the top with steel poles on the side. As it is all in cast aluminum with a big air gap because of this, the electromagnet needs to be as powerful as possible. 80,000 ampere turns will be sufficient according to the manufacturer from an old service manual. The type used on old tractor and stationary engine magnetos with tungsten steel magnets is not powerful enough. I am not cutting any corners, I need pure iron, not steel to make it. When done it will weigh a couple hundred pounds.

Honestly bog std cold drawn mild steel - EN3b holds damn near zero residual magnetism. I have made several electro magnets from it and residue magnetism was surprisingly low. Secret is in annealing it post machining. Equally the residual magnetism is a function more of material than the actual magnetism you pass through it, hence a more powerful charger won't result in more magnetism if the materials annealed.

I have made pole adapters for charging bike magnetos too, but the person that does that uses a capacitor bank discharge setup and its way more exciting than the big coil approach. His energy output levels more than makes up for any saturation issues, gotta understand, a big part of the problem with old magnetos is the gradual loss of magnetism that the newer super magnetic materials just don't suffer from, hence my advice is don't overly sweat it to the level you are, use mild steel hit it at thoes kinda energy levels and you will very much have working magnetos that massively outperform the originals. Sure mild steel may only be some 95% of irons 100% but you can easily make up for that by making it a larger cross section, cheap materials and going bigger is the easier fix here, your still easily going to be able to saturate your assy in the gap.

If you truly want to maximise it, you dont want to do it the way your first pic shows, a proper C shape stack of lamination's would be way better in common lamination steel, then simply some replaceable packers. Easier option may be to just find a large ferrite transformer and simply cut a slice out and rewind it, you will get far higher energies than you will with pure iron bits bolted together. Equally you want to hit it with the magnatism, not hold it, the pulse and fast keeps temp down and thats important, hence why most people these days that energise magnets do so with a pulse type setup. Large as in 1' dia ferrite cores are readily available too.

If i'm not mistaken you need to magnetize the magnet with the armature in circuit. capacitive discharge through the original winding might do it.


alternatively you could make a new armature with a single winding (smaller air gap), discharge a capacitor through it, slide the armature in as you pull the charging coil out.


another option is to slide the magnet out into your charging electromagnet, then slide it back into the motor with the armature in circuit. otherwise you wipe the magnet and only end up with a .15T magnet.. ie you might as well replace it with a ferrite one.


also it doesn't matter what the residual magnetic field is in the charging coils/etc, all that matters is that you can get the field strength at the magnet high enough.

you can probably magnetize that magnet with a neodymium magnet of equal cross section and equal thickness.. with a very short magnetic pathway, slide the magnet out of the motor into the neodymium magnet, then slide it back into the motor with the armature present.

Goodfellow Metals?
Metals Online small quantity sources Index of Materials Goodfellow
They have a lot of odd/specialty metals.