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Acquisition
Nichrome wire is easily obtained from appliances you have in your house, appliances from thrift stores, and online.
Appliances can contain multiple gauges and may have something less like a wire and more like a ribbon (perhaps more appropriately termed heat tape, but usage is similar and both will be addressed as wire).
Online stores usually offer spools of a single gauge of wire and may mark it as foam cutting wire. You could also buy heat tape and take it apart, but this is more expensive.
Hair Dryers
 A $3.25 hair dryer from GoodWill |  Looking down the end of it, you can see the Nichrome wire before you even take it apart |  It comes with a free fan and switches! |
 Those Nichrome coils, as viewed from the other end |  The complete innards of your average hair dryer |  Random: looks like this one has a hot limit switch |
 I uncoiled one segment to show about how much Nichrome comes out of there (lots) |  This is what I kept. Your tastes may vary. |
Toasters
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|  Looking in the top, you can already see the objective |
 The electronics that drive the toaster. You might find a use for the relay or rotary switch...maybe not. |  After some disassembly, we have the three heating vanes. One of them is double sided, since it was in the middle. |  I wrapped the wire around the guts of a shaker-flashlight because it was handy. There was about 18 feet of the stuff in the toaster. |
 This is what I kept. Your tastes may vary. |
Buying Online
A number of hobby stores sell Nichrome wire. It is often sold as foam cutting wire.
Using
Setup
