WINDING THE TRANSFORMER

The ferrite core of the transformer is an antenna rod from an old transistor radio. You could use
a slab antenna but we have chosen a 10mm diameter rod, 8cm long and the first winding to be
wound on it is called the primary.

This consists of 58 turns of wire spaced slightly apart so that is occupies the centre 6cm of the
rod. The first thing to do is wind two layers of insulation around the rod so that the wire does
not touch the rod and create a short.

Leave the first 8 - 10cm of wire and start winding with the thick .61mm wire. But firstly hold the
end of the wire in place with a short piece of sticky tape folded over itself and stuck along the
length of the rod, where the winding is to be placed. Continue winding and fix the other end in
a similar manner, leaving 8 - 10 cm for connecting to the rest of the components.

Place one layer of paper over this winding and secure both the start and end of the paper with
sticky tape. Make sure this insulating paper is tight by rolling it like a cigarette before sticky-
taping.

The next layer is called the feedback winding and consists of 13 turns of the thin .28mm wire,
wound in a spiral fashion so that it takes up the full length of the 6cm.

Terminate both the start and finish of the winding with sticky tape to prevent it unwinding.
Cover this with a layer of insulation.

Now, for the final winding, called the secondary.

This consists of 450 turns of .28mm wire, wound in 3 layers of 150 turns.

The winding does not have to be neat and you could quite easily jumble-wind the turns and it
would work perfectly ok, however there are two factors to remember.

The voltage between the start and finish of this winding will be about 1,000 volts and the
insulation on the wire is only about 100v. So the start and the finish must not be near each
other. This also applies to most of the other turns so the best way to prevent the inner-turn
sorts is to carefully wind the turns side-by side.

This also produces the best results.

Leave 8 - 10 cm of wire and hold the start in place with a piece of sticky-tape folded over itself
and stuck to the insulation. Wind 150 turns neatly across the 6cm of the transformer and hold
the last turn in place with sticky tape before placing a layer of insulation over the winding.
Continue with the next layer and one more, making a total of 450 turns.
Cover the last layer with insulation, tin the ends of each of the windings with a hot soldering
iron and plenty of solder and the transformer is complete.