[Elecraft] K2 Toroid Wire Coating

[Byron Servies]

On Jan 4, 2010, at 8:23 AM, Don Wilhelm wrote:

> Try the solder blob method, it is easier and more clean

I recently completed K1 #2799 and wound the 23 toroids myself. I found the videos below from Ron to be exceptionally helpful and after a couple of trial runs with wire not yet wound on to a toroid, doing the real thing was easy. This is the one time I used a panavise in my build: to hold wound toroids gently while I tinned the leads.

My toroids do not have the outer wires flat against the core as I see in most pictures, even though I pulled rather hard on the wires as I wound them, but they all seem to work well.  I may try pressing them down in future, if only for improved asthetics.  The only problem I found was that afterwards I needed to very carefully re-tin my soldering iron tip to get rid of residue. I think I may use a wider tip just for toroid winding next time.

There was also great personal satisfaction in understanding how to adjust the VFO range to be more suitable for my general license, and then adjusting the winding spacing with a pick (using the built-in frequency counter!) to the range I wanted.  This is why I chose to build a kit.

Good luck,

Byron KI6NUL

On Nov 11, 2009, at 8:32 AM, Ron D'Eau Claire wrote:

> It's really very easy to strip enameled wire using a 700F soldering station
> with no special tips. 
> 
> They say a picture is worth a thousand words. Here's a video that's worth a
> thousand pictures ;-)
> 
> http://emtech.steadynet.com/rm/tinning_200_l.ram
> 
> 
> Or, if you're using a dialup this will run better (with a lower image
> quality). 
> 
> http://emtech.steadynet.com/rm/tinning_56_l.ram