Here’s a picture that I originally posted to my watsonseblog back in 2009. It shows several ways to scrounge wire, and also a toroid core from a mouse cable.
The plastic and cable have to be removed from the core before it can be used. The easiest way that I’ve found to do it is to heat the whole thing up with a propane torch. The ferrite core is made from a glass like material and will not melt at red hot temperatures.
If I’ve blogged this pic before, forgive me for forgetting. I’m trying to clean out my directory of old pictures by uploading them to the blog before I delete them. I’m hoping my backups of the blog are good, because I may not have any other copies of the pictures.