Re: SECONDARY WINDING AND COATING JIG

["Tesla list" <tesla-at-pupman-dot-com>]

Original poster: "Bill Vanyo by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-uswest-dot-net>" <vanyo-at-echoes-dot-net>

I don't have any pictures, but mine was very low tech (with a turn
counter, no less), and worked great.  Everything (except the variac)
came from the local hardware store.

Basically, two upright wooden 2x4 supports with deep V-shaped notches
cut in the top, attached to a sturdy base in fixed positions.  Then a
3/8" threaded rod, a bunch of washers and nuts that fit the rod, and
some nylon spacers - plastic nylon tubes about 3/4" long that fit on the
3/8" rod.  So, near the ends of the rod, aligned with the notches in the
wooden supports, I used a sequence of two bolts, 2 or 3 washers, 2 nylon
spacers, 2 or 3 washers, and 2 bolts.  This holds the spacers in place
(loose enough so they turn freely).  The spacers on the rod rest in the
V-shaped notches.  The rod can now turn very freely - the nylon spacers
are pretty slippery.

Now, to hold my PVC pipe on the rod, I made two wooden end plugs from
some thick scrap wood I had.  These were tapered, so one side fit insde
the PVC pipe.  These had holes drilled in the centers, through which the
threaded rod passed.  One of these end plugs was fixed tight to the
threaded rod with a washer and two nuts on each side, tightened so the
wooden plug couldn't rotate on the rod.  The other plug would be
tightened from the outside, pressed hard into the PVC pipe, so now the
whole assembly of PVC and end plugs wouldn't rotate on the rod, though
the whole thing, with the rod, would rotate freely in the wooden
supports.

Then, a good electric drill was attached to one end of the rod, set to
be on, and plugged into a variac.  I propped it up on a bucket - you
could probably get more sophisticated.

A second rod was mounted parallel to the first to hold the spool of
magnet wire.

The whole winding took under ten minutes - 1000 turns on 6.5" PVC.  I
used one hand to control the variac, and the other to press the wire
with my thumbnail against the previous turn.  I could go as fast as 4
turns per second that way before my thumb got warm from friction.

Finally, I bought an electric digit counter on eBay (they're often
there) for $3.25, and rigged a little gizmo to count the turns.  Worked
great!  You have to have the counter - it's cheap and easy, and gives
you an exact number.

I did at least a dozen coats of polyurethane while it turned, though I'd
only let it turn for the first hour and a half or so for each coat,
until the polyurethane was beyond the point of dripping and running.

The drill never got warm - something I was worried about under the load
and low speed for such long durations (I once fell asleep and it ran
over 8 hours, with no apparent harm to the drill).

	- Bill

Tesla list wrote:
> 
> Original poster: "will dork by way of Terry Fritz ?twftesla-at-uswest-dot-net?"
?vcdmasta-at-hotmail-dot-com?
> 
> Hello everyone,
> I was just wondering if someone could suggest a good design for a winding
> machine, as my last secondaries were wound by hand. I would like next time to
> be able to do this in a much more timely manner as well as being able to coat
> my secondaries on the unit (what i really want) I was just wondering if
anyone
> has a photo of their unit that they could show me. I dont want the unit to be
> very complicated, but i want it to work well and be motorized.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Thanks
> 
> Will McManus
> 
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