Kieth, to answer the question you asked me about stretching your element, I'm just gonna go ahead a paste a discussion I had with another knifemaker many months ago in another knife forum:
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I'm assuming you have "leads" or "tags" on the end of an unstretched coiled element of kanthal wire?
If so, put one of the leads in the vice, as close to the coil as you can get. Then you will want to grab a few inches of coil at a time, and stretch it just a little bit between your hands. (Just enough that the coils separate.)
Work slowly from one end to the other and check your length. Ideally, you will make a couple passes from end to end. You can then "fine tune" the stretching to get to an exact length. Go slowly, and with little stretches, as it is VERY hard to "unstretch" or push the coils back together.
Also I would STRONGLY recommend that you don't just put one end in a vice and pull on the opposite end with vicegrips. That is going to introduce A LOT of potential energy, and if the wire were to break, or the vice slip, you could be severely injured, lose an eye, break bones, etc...
The vice should really act as more of a reference point than something to pull agaist. You might also want to wear gloves.
When I stretched my alement, I just took between 6 and 12 inches of coil between my hands at a time and pulled until the coils separated. (Probably a 1/16 of an inch apart AT THE MOST) I then worked my way down the coils to the opposite end, I double checked with the length I needed, and made some very minor adjustments on the second pass in order to get the exact length. The amount of stretching will obviously depend on how long your channel is, and what length of unstretched coil you originally have. The manufacturer should have given a minimum and maximum working lenght for the element. Make sure that your channel is AT LEAST as long as the minimum. If it's within, say 20 to 30 inches of the minimum, you will want to make sure to make VERY SMALL stretches at first, or you will be too long by the time to make it to the end.
Hope this helps.
Also, keep in mind that if you have any tight curves or bends in your channel, that you may want to stretch the coils just a little more at the bends to accommodate these, as the coils on the inside of the bends will naturally be closer together.
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Now, keep in mind that the above assumes you already have a channel cut for your element. I recommend getting a piece of rope the same diameter (or close) as your element/channel, and running that through the channel so that you can get an approximate length. This will give you an idea of how long your element needs to stretch.
Good luck!
