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https://diyodemag.com/projects/wind_it_up

Winding coils is never easy. With a little creativity however, we can automate
this task and make coil winding a little simpler!

Is a one-axis CNC machine possible? Well yes, but maybe I’m cheating, as I don’t
count rotation of the job as an axis! Even the venerable “Eggbot” has two axes
right? Well same question, rotation of the job is not counted in lathe work, nor
rotation of the tool in milling, so the eggbot would also be a single axis; except the
egg is sometimes stopped, or even turned backwards. By definition, a machine is a
tool combining a number of parts that move in relation to one another, usually
around or along an axis.

MOTHER OF INVENTION!
One of the projects we considered including this month has been deemed too
difficult, due to one main component requiring some crafty hand-skills. That
component was a simple coil of wire which, unfortunately, is not readily available
off the shelf. The coil is nothing more than a roll of copper wire though, so you may
well ask, “how difficult can it be?”

Having wound many thousands of turns of very thin wire to make a

15,000V transformer for neon lighting, I can tell you that the thought of having a
machine do it is very appealing!

So here is my last minute, ad-hoc project for the avid coil winder. Yes, I know there
are very few of you out there, many may be hams, others may be making pinball
machines and the like; (interested?); and maybe a few others have always wanted
to play with magnet projects but were afraid of the tediously obsessive craft of coil
winding, by hand… for the remainder of you, I hope to clarify the process, and
encourage you to look at what machine you can design, to perform a task important
to you! When you do, please let us know because we here at DIYODE love to see
what you - our readers - get up to!

WHAT IS A COIL WINDER?

When I wound coils in the 1970s, I was a Coil Winder. There were machines that
could wind coils, but most relied on the human brain and dexterity of human hands
to control the laying of turns. This device follows the same procedures, and could
easily wind some, and maybe all of the coils I worked on - almost without human
assistance.

COMMON TERMS
A “coil” is wound onto a “bobbin” - or “coil former” - between the “cheeks” that form
the sides or ends of the coil. The coil will have a calculated number of “turns” of an
“enamel coated wire (ECW)” of a certain “gauge” or diameter (expressed in metric,
thankfully). This is usually wound onto the bobbin in a number of “layers” which has
so many “turns per layer”. This is a brief but sufficient introduction for a first timer,
to the commonly used terms when it comes to coil winders.

THE CRAFT
The craft of the coil winder is to lay the turns in a very neat layer, side by side,
without gaps, and definitely without crossovers. “Like eels in bed,” an elderly
tradesman once told me. If they don’t lay side by side, and worse still if they
crossover one another, we have a problem! Crossovers ruin the whole job as the
crossed wires have a habit of snowballing into a giant cancerous lump on the coil.
Also, the crossovers will eventually cause premature coil failure, because the wires
rub together and take off the insulation and short out.
A COIL WINDING MACHINE
Note: The CAD program used here is OpenSCAD, which allows for solid geometry,
using a text editor and some maths, to produce a 3D part, which can be saved as a
3D .stl file for 3D printing, or even for making on a CNC.

The machine we describe here simply rotates the bobbin on a shaft, at an

adjustable speed of rotation, while accurately counting the number of rotations.
This is a perfect job for a stepper motor, which can be rotated from one step at a
time, to an upper speed of perhaps several hundred RPM if we engineered it fully;
and it’s only limited by the switching speed of the motor controller and the thinking
speed of the microprocessor.

The bobbin may be held in a chuck, or driven between centres. It is important that
the bobbin doesn’t slip (i.e., NO spinning the wheels!).

For our small simple coil, as we intend to use in the future article, a common
NEMA-17 from an old “InkMess” printer is perfect. No doubt, there are plenty of
discarded messy printers out there. In order to KISS (“keep it simple, stupid”), we
have used a coupling on the end of the motor shaft, and threaded for a bolt we
intend to be the core of the coil.

SPOOLING MOTOR
The second stepper motor controls the position of the winding wire along the axis
of the coil/bobbin. This would normally be called the X-axis, but since it is the only
axis, we’ll simply call it the “Spooling Motor”, as it causes the wire to be laid in a
spool rather than a rat’s nest.

The spooling motor positions the wire between two limits, essentially laying the wire
from the left cheek of the bobbin (i.e., the left limit), along the width of the bobbin
and right up to the right cheek (the right limit).
Some old mechanical winders used a gear mechanism to reverse the direction of
the feed when either limit is reached. Newer (or less old) systems used a switch to
change direction of the spooling motor, but they each took a lot of careful setting
up; sometimes including changing gears or belts to synchronise the rotation with
the feed speeds. The old machines were essentially mechanical, but usually driven
by an electric motor.
ENTER THE MICRO-AGE
An Arduino UNO, or other microprocessor that can generate the two sets of three
digital control signals for a stepper motor driver (i.e., enable, direction and step), or
be programmed to drive an H-bridge directly, is all that is needed to drive the coil
motor and the spool motor. The same processor board will most likely have enough
pins to drive the two motors, via a motor driver shield.

THE PROGRAMMER’S TASK

The machine task is to lay one turn of wire, and move one wire’s diameter
sideways, to lay the next turn of wire. But as the turns are best laid in a spiral, the
spooling motor must travel at a speed of one wire’s diameter sideways, per turn of
the coil. Hence the need for gears on old mechanical machines.

WE HAVE MATHS! YAY!

I know you are all excited to know that maths will, as always, help us make this
work. The programming for the stepper motors is a ratio of spooling motor steps to
winding motor steps. This just needs some thoughtful programming, but it’s the
same as moving a diagonal direction in between the X-axis and Y-axis on any other
CNC machine.

At the end of the bobbin, the spooling motor can simply change direction, and run
the same number of turns back to the start of the previous layer. The cycle
continues until the required number of turns, or layers, are completed. As with most
programming, there is the simple way, and the best way; and the two do not
normally turn out to be the same!

FIXED PROGRAM VS PRE-SETUP

The simple way is intended for simple, or one off coils. The Arduino sketch can be
programmed directly to do such a simple task, requiring no switches or LCD, or any
feedback of limit switches; instead, allotting all responsibility to the programmer and
machine designer. An example of such code for this one job is given here for
reference and explanation. Of course, much depends on the stepper motor
driver/shield you use. The software we used was on a Duinotech Motor Control
shield, but it should also work on others, once configured. You will need to find out
which pins do what, and whether you have a step/direction/enable style, or an H-
bridge connection. If you prefer, it will work with a pair of ULN2003 ICs.

ADDING SOME FINESSE

As the foundation layer is the chance for the (human) motor winder to make sure all
is well, the first layer should be wound slower so as to enable inspection of the
quality of the layer. It should be good enough for the (human) motor winder to
declare “I couldn’t have done better myself!”

As in CNC practice, the spooling motor, and therefore the winding motor as well,
should be slowed towards the end of each layer and accelerated smoothly into the
next layer. The motors should also be started slowly, and also slowed at the end of
the required number of turns or layers; partly so the wire doesn’t unravel if the
supply spool continues to rotate under its own inertia.

The winding wire supply spool can be mounted on an axle with some drag to help
avoid this happening, but it’s usually not an issue if the supply spool is small and
light, as ours will be. Braking can be achieved by keeping the reel between felt or
leather cheeks.

WIRE CONDITIONING
As the wire comes off the supply spool, commercial machines pass the wire
through three optional processes. Firstly, if the spool of wire had been left out to
become dusty, a felt or other material pad may be used to wipe any dust from the
wire. Secondly, a wire straightener may be added to remove any kinks from the
wire, including the curve created from being wrapped around the spool. Thirdly, you
need it to pass through a tensioner to attempt to maintain an even pull from the
wire on the bobbin back to the supply spool.

Finally, the essential task: the wire is guided to a position by a guide wheel, or
commercially, a ruby-tipped guide tube. The ruby is a little too expensive for home
brew, of course, so we’ll use a grooved plastic wheel instead!

All of this depends upon the size and shape of the wire, and of the coil being made.
What works for one gauge of wire will break another, or the machine would be
broken by large conductors.

The bottom line is... we are looking at a machine to do a specific job, and if it
handles similar jobs then all is well. We make no suggestion of designing a
universal coil winder, but maybe for another day.

THE BUILD

PARTS REQUIRED: AUS3D

2 x 250mm Aluminium V-Rail Extrusion 2600 Section VS2060-250

2 x NEMA17 Stepper Motors 27” Ounces or Better Stepper-34mm

1 x 5mm Coupling

1 x 5mm/M6 Flexible Curling Flex-coupler-5x8

1 x 8mm Trap Thread TR8x8-300mm

1 x M6 ID Bearing BB-608ZZ-10

1 x 8mm x 350 SR8-350

1 x 88 ID Lin Bearing LM8UU

1 x 8mm x 20 Spring

1 x 20 x 3 100mm Aluminium or Steel Strip

12 x M5 x 10mm Button Head or Pan Head Allen Screws VS1510

12 x M5 Slide/Slot Nut VS0150

3 x M3 Nuts Stainless Steel (25 piece pack) VS0155

3 x 6mm x 6mm M3 Metal Stand Off Bush

2 x 120mm M5 or M6 Allen Head Bolt

2 x M5 or M6 nuts to Suit

8 x M3 Washers

8 x M3 x 8mm Round or Hex Head Screws

8 x M3 x 12mm Round or Hex Head Screws

1 x M3 x 15mm Round or Hex Head Screws

1 x 3D Printed Nema17 Stepper Motor Mount (Wind Motor)

1 x 3D Printed Nema17 Stepper Motor Mount (Spool Motor)

1 x 3D Printed Nema17 Stepper Motor Mount (Lead Screw Bearing)

1 x 3D Printed Plastic Feed Block

3 x 3D Printed 200mm Guide Wheels

COIL MOTOR
As we’re using a one-quarter-inch or M6 bolt as the bobbin for our coil, the simplest
possible drive is to use a one-quarter-inch or 6mm inline coupling, with two grub
screws. They are normally about 12mm diameter and 16mm long, but that’s plenty
for the job at hand. If the stepper motor you choose has a one-quarter-inch/6mm
shaft (i.e., a NEMA 23 type), then all good. The NEMA 17 motors we salvaged
have a 5mm shaft, and 5mm couplers are also available, but harder to find. One
end can be threaded for 6mm/one-quarter-inch with a cheap threading “tap”. If you
haven’t used one before, I am sure there will be a description for newbies on the
internet.

I used NEMA 17s simply because they were there! My penalty is that I had to find
or make a coupling for the 5mm shafts. I could have packed the one-quarter-inch
job with some 0.5mm shim ( i.e., thin aluminium/copper/tinplate or such), but with a
lathe in my shed I turned one up, and another for the lead screw. Sorry, but it was
just too tempting!

Mount one end of your coupling on the stepper motor, and the “bobbin” bolt in the
other. The motor itself should be locked down and this can be accomplished in its
most basic method - with a couple of zip ties - as it only has to remain still for one
or maybe a few jobs. A little runout won’t cause any real problems, and the wire
guide will have some give built in.

For the serious makers out there, who have access to a 3D printer, we have drawn
up a set of plastic stepper motor mounts that can be screwed to a wooden base
board, or even mounted on V-slot extrusion.

Finally, as I predict a few more projects to come that also require coils, I’m making
one from almost all bought parts. The photo of the shiny all new parts machine, as
compared to the prototype below may convince you to make your own. Chris from
Aus3D has agreed to put together a bundle of the parts that I have used.
SPOOL MOTOR

Using another one-quarter-inch or 6mm coupling, attach a long threaded bolt, or a

piece of threaded rod to another stepper motor shaft. This motor should also be
locked down, and a simple solution to both motors would be to clamp the two under
another piece of MDF. My knock-up used wood screws to mount the plastic
brackets to a leftover piece of laminated chip board. My high-tech version of the
motor mounts are made to bolt to aluminium V-rail extrusions, using slot nuts and
5mm button head allen screws.

HINT: Collect old stepper motors to play with! There are a lot of them out there in
all sorts of “recycle-ready” hardware, and most still work as good as new.

The threaded rod I got from a hardware store was really disappointing quality. The
material was very soft and easily bent, and running my fingers along the threads
detected variations in the diameter that were easily felt. Hopefully there are some
better quality versions out there, as they’ll sure make it easier to get the machine
running smoothly. For the “all new parts” coil winder, I used a polished, threaded
8mm trapazoid screw and matching turned nut. The difference was well worth the
upgrade.
WIRE GUIDE

All we need now is something to ride on that thread, and guide the wire into
position so as to direct it to the exact position we want it to be wound. The wire
passes over the first wheel, under the second, and over the third down to the coil.
Although optional, there is essentially a felt pad that the wire is pulled through to
remove dust, and to provide some of the tension; as well as three pulley wheels
that the wire passes over, under and over again, in order to apply a little more
tension on the wire, and remove most kinks.

A good scrounger collects wheels, springs, screws and the like from old VCRs or
cassette tape players (remember them?). Perhaps you can use toy car wheels, V-
belt pulleys, or 3D-print some? Nylon is a good material but avoid any hard
materials with sharp edges, as they may scratch the enamel insulation. That thin
layer of enamel is usually good for 600V, as long as it’s not scratched.

The wire guide arm can be a length of plastic, aluminium, steel, or even wood,
depending on your preferred technology. I like making swarf, so I choose metal
(almost) every time! This time however, we decided on a 3D printed feed block so
it’s easier to share, and a little less engineering is required. The block should be
printed on its side with the holes vertical, so no support material is required.

The two holes should both be 6mm clearance for a 6mm rod, or one-quarter-inch
for those still suffering from nostalgia. Both holes may need to be reamed out with
a suitable drill bit. Do NOT use a high speed drill as the plastic will heat up and melt
onto the drill. The idea is to take things easy, and hand ream the holes with a twist
drill held in a chuck or vice, or vice grips - always being careful to keep the two
holes as parallel as possible.

There are two recesses designed into the original STL model, which are the right
shape and size for two 6mm steel nuts to be pressed in, to make the thread. A vice
is a good way to squeeze the nuts into the hexagonal holes, but a same size bolt
with a large washer can be used to pull one in. A smaller bolt that fits through the
inside of the thread can be used to pull the other one in.

If they are too tight a fit, warm them up and they should go in without too much
effort. Screw the threaded rod through both nuts, and tap the rod to help the nuts
find a position where the rod turns easily. A little grease may help. The all-new
version uses a different feed block to accomodate the M8x8 Lead Screw Nut. Both
technology parts will be available online.

Of course without a 3D printer, avid woodworkers can make something similar in

hardwood or MDF, while engineers can fit up a lump of aluminium; whatever your
decision, you need to make your own. We also included a set of plastic guide
wheels in the model, but curtain shops usually have some nice nylon wheels. You
still have to supply your own metal arm - aluminium or steel preferred!

Note that the last wheel needs to run fairly consistent and true, as it is the one that
guides the wire into place. For all three I used 6mm long by 6mm outside
diameter, PCB non-threaded standoffs. Again, in hindsight I should have made the
wheels the same width as the standoffs. That has also been fixed for the uploaded
3D files, which are 5.5mm thick. If they print out tight, either adjust the height in
your slicer software, or print them out and sand down the non-shiny side.

ASSEMBLY
We have provided the guts of the project, and we could design a special base and
machined motor mounts, etc but we’ll leave this to you as we don’t know what you
have on hand, and what you’re good at working with.

BASE OF OPERATIONS

To begin with, we need a base for the project. In classic project fashion, I begun
with a modern version of the classic breadboard, which really just refers to a piece
of pine for old valve projects; but for the prototype I used an off-cut of laminated
chipboard - because it was there! MDF or pine would have been a better choice for
convenience and low cost.

Once the prototype was built however, I moved on to two 250mm lengths of 2060
V-rail extrusion from Aus3D. I could have used 2080 for more width, but I would
have required a longer drill to join the two. The 2060 extrusions lay side by side,
and I could have joined them quite effectively with a common end plate, but I didn't
have any. So I cross-drilled both pieces carefully, 6mm diameter at exactly 25mm
from each end.

The extrusions have a centre line already along the bottom of each V-slot, so
marking is pretty easy. To have the best chance of the holes lining up, mark and
drill from the joining faces of the extrusions so they line up best. Drill through the
middle material all the way through. The drill therefore has to be at least as long as
the extrusions are wide, and have enough to grip in the chuck. Otherwise I may
have used 2080 myself.

The two extrusions are then bolted together. I used threaded rod, because I had it
on hand, but a Hex or Cup head M6 bolt, at least 120mm active length, plus
enough for the washer and nut can be used.

I counter-drilled the outside faces to allow a socket to fit over a nut to tighten them,
but that required a larger drill than some may have access to, and drilling through
the slot with anything but a feed-type bench drill with vice is not recommended as it
will bite! So it is okay to simply use a washer and nut outside of the extrusion sides.

I completed the base by adding stick-on rubber feet to the bottom side, but perhaps
you might prefer screw on feet; it's your choice.

CHAMFERED EDGES

Aluminium can take nasty bites out of bare skin, especially straight off the docking
saw. I recommend an old wood plane, not a large one but a small hand plane often
found at garage sales or markets, or even some hardware stores. I simply adjust
the blade for a thin sliver and run the plan along each edge as about 45 degrees
until I see about a 1mm wide chamfer along the edge. You might like to trim up the
holes and slots of swarf as well, using a screwdriver blade, or scraper if you have
one.

MOTOR BRACKETS
For the “must 3D print it” group, we have drawn up some motor mount brackets.
There is also a model for the feed block and wheels, so you really can 3D print and
assemble it all on an MDF base.

The motor brackets were printed off, and three versions were printed before "the
one" was found. It has eight mounting holes, which allow it to be mounted on the
MDF, or align with the slots of the extrusion, spaced 20mm apart centre to centre.

M5 x 12mm button head allen screws attach the brackets to the extrusion using slot
nuts, also from Aus3D. The mounts can therefore, be slid along the slots then
locked into place, as may be required for experimental winding of coils, and even
helical antennas, or for UHF CB; or even possibly 2.4GHz phased arrays!

I had a 22mm bronze bush, which I used in a motor mount bracket for the screw far
end, but the thread only needs a good guide - even plastic or wood - so the wire
guide stays fairly level. In a moment of expected overkill, I ordered a 8mm lead
screw and nut, mainly to see if the upgrade really is overkill, or useful. I’m happy to
say, it resulted a big improvement.
The bronze bush fitted perfectly, requiring a little scraping out, but the fitting will
depend on your 3D printer and its settings. An 8mm ball bearing from Aus3D is
also 22mm outside diameter, fortuitously, and fits in the motor bracket as printed.
With no sideways force, it should remain in place without fixing, but if it wanders a
little drop of glue should do the trick.

THE ELECTRONICS
Once again, we don’t intend to tell you to go out and buy a new Arduino, as almost
any development style board with whatever microcontroller you have will do. I have
an i8031 looking for a job - but that poor old fella might be better left in a box, as
he’s an antique now!
While my collection doesn't include one of every type of stepper motor driver in
existence, I have quite a few, and enough to realise that you may have a favourite;
and in fact, you may all have favourites that bare no commonality, except they
hopefully connect to NEMA 17 motors of a suitable voltage (e.g., 12V, and have
either four inputs for the four coils; or three inputs, Enable, Direction and Step; or at
least the last two).

During development we built two different electronic configurations and wrote code
for both. We initially used a dual motor shield and then we switched to a a pair of
L298 H-Bridge boards. The code we present here is for the second configuration.

The code is being extended for a Freetronics CNCplot or Stepduino controller. The
stepper motor example code from Freetronics was heavily tweaked for the initial
setup, but was an excellent starting point. We'll put the final code up on the
DIYODE website for you, but our L298 Driver is what we'll focus on as it can be
easier to procure.
THE CODE
The coil I wanted when I wrote this, which has since been changed, had a coil
along 30mm of the bobbin. The wire was 0.4mm diameter meaning 30/0.4 = 75
turns. NOTE: This is a trap, the copper is a nominal 0.4mm diameter but the
insulated wire is 0.44mm diameter (i.e., we only get 30/0.44 = 68 turns per layer. “I
bin gypped!”).

The coil winder motor requires 200 steps per revolution, so 13,600 steps to move
along one layer. There had to be a simpler way to do it, so we decided to work one
revolution at a time, and count in steps, turns and layers. Meanwhile, the spooling
motor (of the prototype) drives a 1mm pitch thread, and also makes 200 steps per
revolution. So to go one wire width, 0.44mm, it needs to make 0.44 X 200 = 88
turns.

It occurs to me, and hopefully to you by now, that it’s easier to go one turn at a
time, and turn around every 68 turns to make another layer, which is 14 in total. So
every 200 steps of the winder motor requires 88 steps of the spooling motor.

For a fixed purpose, one-use program, I can simply do the 88 steps of the spool
motor, making 2 steps of the winding motor for every spooling motor step. Then
after (88 x 2 =) 176 winding motor steps, I will have moved the wire one whole wire
width; but still have 24 steps to complete one revolution of the coil. In a nasty
cheat, I make 24 more steps of the winding motor and call it one turn. Then I do the
same for the whole layer, and call it one layer. If I do that another 13 times I have a
coil. So the program becomes a nest of dumb “for-next” loops.

#include <Stepper.h>

// For the Project Coil...

const int TurnsPerLayer = 67;
// 67.5
const int Layers = 7;
// 14 Layers = Layers/2 for L>R and R>L
const int StepsPerTurn = 88;
// Driven width of one wire.
const int StepsPerRev1 = 200;
const int StepsPerRev2 = 200;
const int stepsPerRevolution = 200;
// change this to fit the number of steps per
//revolution for your motor

/************************************/
// initialise the stepper library on pins 8 through 11:
Stepper coilStepper(stepsPerRevolution,8, 9, 10, 11);
// initialise the stepper library on
// pins 8 through 11:
Stepper spoolStepper(stepsPerRevolution,4, 5, 6, 7);
/************************************/
void setup()
{
// set the speed at 60 rpm:
coilStepper.setSpeed(60);
spoolStepper.setSpeed(60);
} // End of Setup()

First we import the stepper library which is part of the standard Arduino setup.
Next, we set a number of constants used in the code and initialise 2 'Stepper'
objects.

In the loop() we issue step command to the spool motor and to the coil motor as
required to build the coil to the spec's we have set.

void loop()
{

for (int l = 0; l < Layers; l++)

{
// Run this layer from left to right.
for (int t = 0; t < TurnsPerLayer; t++)
// Run this layer from left to right.
{
for (int spt = 0; spt < StepsPerTurn; spt++)
 // Most of the turn is 2:1 winding ratio
{
// step spool stepper one step
spoolStepper.step(1);
delay(1);
// step coil stepper 2 steps
coilStepper.step(2);
delay(1);
}

int catchup = StepsPerRev1 - 2 * StepsPerTurn;

// Lazy way to catch up. Should distribute this better.
for (int j = 0; j < catchup; j++)
{
// step coil stepper 2 steps clockwise
coilStepper.step(2);
delay(1);
}
}
// Run this layer from right to left.
for (int t = 0; t < TurnsPerLayer; t++)
{
for (int spt = 0; spt < StepsPerTurn; spt++)
// Most of the turn is 2:1 winding ratio
{
// step spool stepper one step back
spoolStepper.step(-1);
delay(1);
// step coil stepper 2 steps
coilStepper.step(2);
 delay(1);
}

int catchup = StepsPerRev1 - 2 * StepsPerTurn;

// Lazy way to catch up. Should distribute this better.
for (int j = 0; j < catchup; j++)
{
// step coil stepper 2 steps
coilStepper.step(2);
delay(1);
}
}
}

} // End of loop()

This code does a right to left layer.

SOFTWARE CREEP

Of course, the simple answer doesn’t always satisfy us, so plans have begun for
the next generation of our coil winder.

I would like to issue a G-code type command (used by CNC machines) or similar,
or simply fill out the parameters on a Python screen, and let a Python script tell the
coil winder what it’s job is.

The maths can be set up using Bresenham’s Algorithm, which you can read about
on the DIYODE website. Our program, based on Besenham’s Algorithm part is
complete. The console driven version is well under way but may not be complete
before you read this. It will however be on the DIYODE website as soon as it is
debugged.
The coil winder will also pop up from time to time, as it makes another coil for
another project; so stay tuned!

PREPARE A COIL BOBBIN

For the project we have in mind, the coil is made on a M6 x 50mm (or one-quarter-
inch x two-inch) bolt. The design of the coil is given in the article, but for a generic
electromagnet for experiments, or simply playing with, we can use the same simple
design.

First, you need to remember that electric wire on an iron bolt is likely to short out if
you scratch the thin layer of high resistance enamel off the wire. ECW is typically
rated at 600V, but modern winding wire may have “solder through insulation”
meaning that with enough temperature the insulation becomes a flux. Good if that’s
what you want; bad if your coil gets too hot! Either way, coils are normally made
onto a bobbin, often made from plastic; we could 3D print a bobbin, but a simple
method that has been used since Michael Faraday was playing with
electromagnets, is made from paper and shellac - or varnish, if shellac is
unavailable.

CHEEK INSULATION

The cheeks will be made of cardboard, the same size as the end washers you have
found. Try to get 20mm washers if you can find some. The good thing about a
6mm/one-quarter-inch bolt is that an office paper punch is about the right size to
make a hole in the cardboard washer; you can use the back cover from an old
(retired) notebook or such. Punch a few holes, at least the width of your washer
apart, and cut them midway between the holes. Stack the cardboard disks on the
threaded part of the bolt, with a steel washer either side, and a steel nut before and
after. Tighten the nuts to clamp the cardboard tightly together. Make up six or
more, and you can pick the best and keep the rest for another go later on.
Now carve, file, sand or chisel the cardboard washers round. We used a lathe and
a specially sharpened tool, mainly to see if they came out any better, but a pair of
scissors will do a good enough job.

Remove the washers from the bolt, lay them flat on some plastic, and soak them
with shellac or thinned varnish, and then leave to dry. When they are dry enough to
handle, put a steel washer on the bolt followed by a cardboard washer, and
another, then the second steel washer and a nut. Spin the nut up to the end of the
thread and then put another nut on behind it. Turn the first nut one turn back, and
tighten the second nut up against it.

BOLT INSULATION

Begin by cutting a rectangle of paper the width of the bobbin, 30mm wide in my
case, and long enough to wrap around the bolt twice. (Pi x D x 2 if you want an
exact length!) Tightly wrap the paper around the bolt, and keep in place with a
couple of clothes pegs or rubber bands. It’s best if the pegs are rubbed with a little
oil first, so they don’t stick on the paper; but don’t put them back into the peg
basket when you’re done. Not a good plan, socially!

Brush some shellac or varnish into the paper, and let it dry before removing the
pegs or rubber bands. There may be some areas not covered but just as long as
the paper remains in place for now, that’s what matters most.

SET YOUR BOBBIN ASIDE TO DRY

Now that you have a bobbin drying, what other options did you have? Some
bobbins come moulded from a factory, some are turned up on a lathe from nylon or
special insulation materials, while some are made from a material very similar to a
blank PCB - and for a larger bobbin, that option may be useful to remember.

PCB BOBBIN
Use a hole saw to make two or more washers from a piece of PCB material,
preferably waste, or a failed PCB. Although we have two steel washers already on
our bolt, it would still be a good idea to remove the copper from the PCB washers,
as they form shorted turns and convert some of the EM field into heat, rather than
the attractive force we want. So etch the PCB clean first if you can.

The steel washers will do the same but have a higher resistance, so we tend to
forget about them. Technically we should saw a gap from outside of the washer to
the hole in the centre, to break the shorted turns. The PCB washers would be put
on the bolt, the same as the cardboard ones, and the paper could be glued on with
epoxy resin or even super glue. Good luck at keeping your fingers off that lot!

MOUNT THE WINDING WIRE

To make the coil, the bobbin on which the wire is supplied needs to be placed on
some form of axle so it doesn’t run off under the bench at some critical moment.
The wire should come off the reel freely, and the reel should rotate freely on it’s
axle.

Some jobs require the wire to be fed out of the bobbin through the cheek, or along
a groove in the cheek. The winder may also prefer to join a length of hookup wire to
the winding wire, so the joint is not seen outside of the coil.

However you mount the start of the winding, make sure the end is secure on the
bobbin and the free end is not going to become tangled in the machinery.

MOMENT OF TRUTH
Hopefully you have made some dummy runs without wire first, but once you’re set
up and have double-checked everything, apply power to the Arduino and shield,
and hopefully everything will run smoothly. Just be sure that you have a switch in
the power wiring, and keep it handy. If you have to stop suddenly, remember that
the Arduino will forget where it was, and your only option will be to wind the wire
back onto the reel, and start over.