I have made a few coils using various methods, for me this has been the easiest, most consistant method. Bobbin center is 5mm x 0.1mm drinking straw. Sides punched from any thin plastic. Assembled on 4.8mm drill, (my 5mm punch cuts 4.8mm holes). I put an o-ring on drill and use straw to push parts together against 0-ring to form a good seal, dip needle in CA and tack together. Remove and add more CA.

Dave

bobbin on winder

winder
hit keys + then 1, will count up
- and 1 will count back down

hello david.
i have made lot of coils but without sides: sides are removeable and waxed (plastic, rings.... depends what i find!)
every 100 turns i put some nail varnish(to chose the color ask your wife !)when finished let dry and remove sides.you can add some varnish arround.i usegeneraly a 7 mm straw(mac do) + paper+ ca arround the straw(add wax on the straw before) so the final diam is about 7 mm(my magnets are 5 mm)when dry remove straw and cut the excess papervery carefully'.
i like your winder cause my one is more simple!
patrick..

Thanks Pat,

Like to here from anyone else who has perfected this method.
Bobbin pictured is for 3mm magnets.
I think I've gone one better. 4.8mm od straw x 0.12 wall thickness on 4.5mm drill. Place sides over straw, glue with CA. When dry, run knife around outside while still on drill. No bits to stick together, nothing to clean up or cut away.
I'm not to worried about bobbin weight, if built light it must not way much at all. If you remove sides and/or center you must add more CA to hold coil windings together.

The winder is simpler than it looks. Just a gearbox from an old fax or something and a calculater.

Dave

Have been searching for winding wire data with current ratings, with no luck. Any help appreciated.

Dave

Bobbins make the process easier and don't add much weight. I was lucky and got a mess of nylon bobbins at the local surplus store. The lightest version came in at 0.6g so I think the trade-off of gluing vs bobbin is close to a wash.

Those you make are works of art. It would be interesting to compare the weight of yours with the bobbin and one with glue holding everything together.

I use a very small dab of hot glue to finish off the wrap. Dab of hot glue on the edge, inbed the end, wrap five more revs with both leads away from the glue then back to the glue. That way if someone with a broken lead needs to retrieve the bitter end they can just heat the glue and lift a new few inches of wire.

It would be great to have a data table for coils, but there are so many variables: gauge, diameter, and width come to mind, as well as wire material, thickness of insulation, etc.

Just tried to weigh my latest bobbin (bare) on my 0.1 gram increment scale. Reads 0, bobbin must weigh around 0.1 gram or less. Lighter than I thought.

My IR Rx (200 ohm coil version) outputs are good for about 20mA I think. Wanted to know the smallest size wire (may not be best size) I could use.

Dave

i haven't find so tiny bobbins here .
to make 200 ohms coils i use 0.05 mm wire.it is the smallest i used without problems.
patrick.

Dave

Gordon posted a solution some time ago for weighing super light components. Put enough of them together to get a reasonable mass, weigh them, then divide by the # of pcs. to get the individual weight. The more pcs., the more accurate the individual weight.

Dave

Here is a picture of the coil winder I made. It is set up for heat bondable wire.

wow, i feel really inadequate. I don't have anything resembling those intricate machines. I think i'll just use a power drill, lol

and a little lathe work and teflon.
Mike