a VERY cheap way to make BIG toroids

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

Original poster: "Justin Hays by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-qwest-dot-net>" <pyrotrons2000-at-yahoo-dot-com>

Hello All.

Thought this was very worth mentioning.

A few months ago, Aron and I were wondering how to go
about building CHEAP toroids suitable for coil's over
12" in diameter. Here's how we did it:

* Bought some 3/8" rebar in 10 foot lengths.
Buck-and-a-half per 10 foot length if I remember
correctly.

* Cut all the rebar in half, save one. Use an angle
grinder (Get a "Makita", $60 from Home Depot....it has
done us a wonderful job, cut anything with it tungsten
included)

* Bend each 5 foot section into a perfect rings, by
standing on it and wearing leather gloves to form it
by hand (it's easier than you think, it's quite
workable) For the last "end" of each loop, use a bench
vise.

* Make one ring that is the required inside diameter
of the toroid (middle of the donut) with the last
complete 10 foot lenght of rebar

* Weld all the little rings onto the outside of the
big ring

The finished toroid worked out really well, the one we
made was for a 15" secondary, and costed us less than
$30 (IF THAT) and the thing was just plain huge. Our
future plans for the toroid are to take some
relatively thin wire and wrap it all the way around
the outside rings, so it could be given somewhat of a
"solid" appearance,,,,,,making it look totally cool.
I'm thinking that CATV lashing wire would work
well...........

I wasn't going to mention it at first, but I'll say it
anyway.....against Aron's will I painted the thing
flourescent green....and he's right, it does look like
heck, isn't it great?!?!

The thing worked perfectly, however we probably should
have used 16 or more rings instead of only 12. The
bigger it is, the more rings you've got to have on the
outside to keep it from looking like a smashed spider.
(leaving you with a nice visual)

Later,

Justin Hays
KC5PNP
Email: justin-at-hvguy-dot-com
Website: www.hvguy-dot-com














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