The AM Forum

Hello All,
           Would anyone have a good idea for as homebrew coil winder? I've developed a serious need for one to do various projects, and was wondering what other people use.

Any tips,hints, or kinks greatly appreciated.
Regards,
          Joe Cro N3IBX

Hi Joe,

Some Lathes have threading capability -- this involves a gear driven tool holder and many different pitch selections on the gear reduction mechanism.

Assuming that you need single layer coils on forms (like PVC,  Acrylic, or Polycarb forms),  this can be set up to work well.  You could also use a form for the winding, and remove it later,  but this gives you a Slinky to try to tame later.

For Toroid winding,  it takes quite a machine,  and is usually beyond the experimenter to do machine assisted toroid donuts.

You could probably set up a slow drill motor (screw gun ?) to do the same with smaller wire ... with larger wire,  the side pull is great, to get the wire to lay flat and be consistant.

73  GL  Vic  KF6RIP

Vic,
    Many thanks for the suggestions. You gave me a great idea! Perhaps I could rig up something using a cordless screwdriver as the motor. I'm not interested in speed, but more accuracy. I have to wind 150 turns of #36 silk covered wire on a 1" coil form and want to do it right the first time.

Best Regards,
                 Joe N3IBX

Joe,
   Check your local industrial classifieds. A small table top lathe would be FBOM. Look for something along the lines with 3-5" jaws. Plus, you never know when you may have to machine a custom part. That one time will pay for itself. If you want new and cheap try Grizzly. They have an outlet store up here near Williamsport.

http://www.grizzly.com/

Hi Joe,

I have a plastic gear contraption with a motor that I bought for work from edmund scientific.  One of the technicians built a turns counter out of a plastic interrupter wheel and a photointerruptor.  Works good.  I have wound 360 turns of #40 with it no prob.

http://scientificsonline.com/product.asp_Q_pn_E_3052406

73
Bob

Hi Joe,

You need a Moreco 'Coilmaster'.....they show up on epay sometimes, or you could homebrew one....

http://www.qsl.net/k5bcq/COIL/COIL.html


Larry

I usually handwind smaller coils like that.  Takes a little patience, but not difficult.

An old trick I used to use for kilowatt size coils was to find a round glass throw-away jar of the appropriate diameter that used to contain canned fruit or jam.  I would cover it with a layer of wax paper.  Then wind the coil over the wax paper, and glue plastic strips along the outside length of the coil. Elastic bands were used to hold the strips in place while the glue was drying.  When the glue was fully hardened, I would use a small ball-peen hammer to carefully break the jar and let the glass fall out, then remove the wax paper.  Next I would glue another plastic strip inside the coil, so that the wire was sandwiched between the strips.  Small clamps or even clothespins would hold the strip in place until the glue hardened.   I ended up with some homebrew coils that looked almost identical to the HDVL series.

Problem now, not much canned food comes in round glass jars.