RE: [TCML] Primary coil winding troubles with 1/4" tubing

[Brian Hall <brianh4242@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Thanks everyone for your helpful advice.  I do have some latex or nitrite gloves that I will use next time.  I had a feeling that going from the innermost turn and working outwards was the right way to do it - good to know that initial idea was correct.
I have the name of a local handyman that I just might hire to manufacture some plexiglass supports with evenly spaced slots to hold/snap in the tubing firmly - probably 8 of them, as someone reccomended. In retrospect I can see that with only 4 supports and that large of a radius, it would have held shape better if there were more ribs.  Or I may zip tie it down then put another sheet of plexi over that (to cover the holes that the zip ties go through) and tap it from underneath as someone suggested. I have the parts for my strike rail as well.  For the math I did calculate that more than 25 feet would be needed and well 50 is the next step up they sell it in.
This is my first 'too big for a tv tray' coil and probably won't be my last.
Slow and steady is necessary - maybe why there are so few videos of people winding their primary coils - because it is a tedious and careful process, the video of the whole procedure would be really long.  I think I will cut the zip ties I have down from that plexiglass base, save for the flange, and try again.
Also thank you that it won't look as pretty as all those pictures - that's a relief!  So far, winding the primary is the part that requires the most time and mechanical engineering and expensive tools with skillful cutting of the whole process. Even wiring up the rest of the tank circuit, I have all the parts for and feel fairly confident about. The secondary just takes a while but is mechanically simple in comparison.  I have a type of EMI filter that takes a plug like you have in the power cord for a desktop computer, but may use a horn shaped protection gap as well as opposed to a terry filter.
I recall reading that Tesla was a mechanical engineer before he was an electrical engineer - it makes sense, but is that right?

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Brian Hall   




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