Re: first coil

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

Original poster: "tmoorezz" <tmoorezz-at-adelphia-dot-net> 

Well make a spool holder so that the wire will un wrap freely, and when you
wind were a glove on one hand to guide the wire and keep the proper tension
and it shouldn't break, that is unless your using small gauge wire. The
smallest gauge I have used was 28awg and that snapped on me once a few
inches in after I started to wind, no big deal just take it off and start
again. If you use 28awg and up you will be fine, make sure you leave plenty
of extra wire at the bottom and top. Btw Ed is right you can wide a
beautiful secondary by hand! I did once but never again, it takes about six
hours depending on how big the form is, not to mention the blisters you can
get on your hands and the cramps, in fact I wouldn't be surprised if I get
arthrightis in my old age just because I wound a coil by hand!(That's a
joke) It takes about two hours to make a cheap sturdy jig, and you can use
it to make more than one coil, I have wound six of my secondary on my one
jig. the biggest one my 6" by 32" wound with 21awg only toke an hour to
wind, also you can just apply polyurethane while its spinning on your jig
makes it real easy compared to winding by hand with minimal effort and they
tend to be just as good if not better than by hand.

Nolan


----- Original Message -----
From: "Tesla list" <tesla-at-pupman-dot-com>
To: <tesla-at-pupman-dot-com>
Sent: Saturday, October 04, 2003 7:11 AM
Subject: Re: first coil


 > Original poster: "Arpit Thomas" <neko4-at-dodo-dot-com.au>
 >
 > I wound what was pretty much a tesla coil secondary ( Its on my shelf,
 > never used) , by hand, I tried winding it with a drill, but the wire
 > snapped a lot, how do you do it?
 >
 > *********** REPLY SEPARATOR  ***********
 >
 > On 3/10/2003 at 9:34 PM Tesla list wrote:
 >
 >  >Original poster: Ed Phillips <evp-at-pacbell-dot-net>
 >  >
 >  >"Matt,
 >  >
 >  >      I forgot to mention, if you don't have a secondary coil yet don't
 >  >wind
 >  >it by hand. Wow what a pain that is and the turn our lousy. Build a
 >  >simple
 >  >jig hand powered with a crank is good or if you got a helper use a power
 >  >drill, I wound my last coil took only 20 minutes with a drill powered
 >  >jig
 >  >and turned out beautiful, the wire is tight no gaps between windings and
 >  >I
 >  >put about 20 coats of semi gloss polyurethane and it is beautifully.:
 >  >
 >  > You CAN wind a beautiful secondary by hand if you take the trouble.
 >  >Way to go if you only want one.  The winder is more fun and if you keep
 >  >it turning it's easier to apply a surface coating.
 >  >
 >  >Ed
 >
 >