Shadow,

I ran into the same thing. Ridiculous $$$. If all else fails I am going to cast my own out of soft steel shot and epoxy.

Nramaswami,

Can you post a link to a reliable Indian soft iron source please?

Hi:

There are too many to name..Try this link..http://justdial.com/Chennai/Iron-Scrap-Merchants/ct-20229

Also search through Indiamart

However you need to remember many things..

a. Iron is heavy metal and would weight heavilly. If you order 1 kg of iron there may not be any difference really. If you order 100 kg of iron by airparcel it may come late but may not cost much I guess. But not sure.
b. shipping by air would cost you $$$$ based on weight. Shipping by ship would take a lot of time and they would only accept if you order a container of iron.
c. Air parcel would be fine. Possibly the least expensive.
d. You need to find out if the merchant can export iron. They will need multiple licenses for that. Most are scarp dealers here and are local merchants.
e. This is a bulk material. purchasing in minimal quantities is not going to work.
f. In England I'm told that this if fancy material used for ornamental gates and so is expensive.

I actually find it ridiculous to believe all these things.

Don't you have any iron ore near by. Go there and get some thing from the ore company or just pick up the iron dust there using permanent magnets and you get iron dust which is best. Iron dust should be present all over the place and use a magnet and pick it up..You have made a lot of $$$ worth of scrap iron that way.

My experience so far has been two fold. The best results are obtained when you have reasonably high power input or reasonably high voltage:amperage ratios. But strange thing that only when the magnetic field is less electric field produced is high. I do not know why as usual. But it is the fact observed by me.

I'm even open to do the experiments here as described by any one of you to cut costs and report results to person making the payment provided you meet the costs and do not ask me to ship the materials back to you. I will do the later, if so required at your cost. You will need to define the experiments and we will do it and report to you. No scientific inputs from me.

Cadman,

I am still looking for US sources for grey iron. The epoxy and #7 shot sounds good.

Ramaswami,

Thanks for the info on buying from India

The steel shot idea is from Paul Babcock. IIRC he coats the shot with polyurethane before casting and he describes the process in this interview. Magnetic Energy Secrets   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WXMWvloZBgQ

Well worth watching if you haven't seen it.

Shadow;
try these you might get lucky with soft iron bailing wire.

http://www.anxinwiremesh.com/products/soft_black_iron_wire.html

http://www.accentwire.com/bailing-wire/black-annealed/

http://www.wire-fenceing.com/wire-mesh/products/soft_black_iron_wire.html

http://www.galwire.com/galvanizedmetalwire/blackironwire.html