The Transformer Trade

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

Original poster: "Gregory Hunter by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-qwest-dot-net>" <ghunter31014-at-yahoo-dot-com>

Dear List,

Transformer winding and rewinding is apparently big
business. There are transformer reconditioning &
rewinding shops in most big cites, and a few
not-so-big cites. Even little Greenwood, Mississippi
sports a rewinding shop (or so I've been told). This
should not be surprising with so many millions of
distribution transformers in service around the
country. However, net browsing has revealed very
little about the insides of the industry. Books on the
subject are even more scarce than web data. How can
such a big industry be so invisible? It reminds me of
a closed guild from the middle ages. Must I get a job
at a rewinding shop in order to learn what they're
doing in there? How does a winding machine work and
where would you buy one? Where do they find specialty
materials, like laminations? How on Earth does one
train for such a trade? OJT only? I've never seen
"transformer rewinding 101" in the catalog of any
technical college. I understand where the engineers
come from, but where do the journeymen come from? If
anyone has any helpful links, please share. If you
have a lot of info, you may wish to respond off-list,
as this is on the fringe of the main topic.

Cheers,

Greg
http://hot-streamer-dot-com/greg