Anybody have any success with cheap transformer winding machines?

William I. Behen said:

bobbins kept slipping, copper foil, ten turns of Litz wire, half turns, and trying to get large gauge,......Sorry for the glum response

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I can see why your are glum.
My machines have made truck loads of transformers. With out a counter I don't know how to get the exact same transformer every time 8 hour/shift.

I ain't sayin more 'til I see someone wind 8 turns of #12 on a 2616 potcore bobbin with ANY machine, whether you keep track of the turns or not....

A round pot core is very hard to hold in a winder.
The force to bend #12 wire is equal to the force to break a pot core bobbin. #12 is no good at high frequencies.

The original poster already mentioned we were using solenoidal coils on an e-frame, see post #3. Lets stay on track!

ronsimpson,

Breaking bobbins is one of the problems I was referring to, and slipping with round bobbins, which nearly every core used in High Freq smps design is!

Multi strands of smaller gauge wire one can do, but the winding machine is somehow not so helpful with multiple strands. Maybe with more modern bobbins, you can solder to the pins first, then wind smoothly; but to perfect wind from layer to layer with multiple strands is tricky. In general, I found that the small number of turns made machine winding awkward, since getting started and terminating is a big part of the problem!

Maybe the factory machine (I'm assuming) you use works better, but is it "cheap" as FusionITR originally was asking?

If it is for a small amount of turns of large stiff wire, maybe a hand cranked machine would be a good way to go? You can still get those small hand cranked drills that are perfect for low speed and precise control.

I still use my hand cranked drill on large holes in some plastics as you can turn it forward and back and get a lot of control and torque.