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K2 Toroid Wire Coating

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Bob G.

K2 Toroid Wire Coating

For my first several toroid windings, I have used a Bic lighter flame to
burn off the coating on the wire tails, followed by a sanding with the
supplied P180 sandpaper. I noticed it can burn up the wire fast and one of them
lost the coating up to the core. Should I recoat, especially where the
lead may touch the wound toroid, like the horizontal RFC11? What is a
suitable recoat for the wire? Or am I being too picky?

Bob, KE5WZK
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Don Wilhelm-4

Re: K2 Toroid Wire Coating

Bob,

You are being too picky - the cores are not conductive. The only thing
to be careful of is shorted turns. I normally tin the leads all the way
up to the core unless there is a reason to leave an insulated lead (as
there is on the KXB3080 LPF toroid L2).

If you are using a flame, be careful you do not overheat the copper, and
often the residue from a flame will leave a deposit that is difficult to
remove and the solder will not adhere to it - so use only enough heat to
melt the insulation and no more (do not stick the wire directly into the
blue part of the flame).

Try the solder blob method, it is easier and more clean - use a wide tip
on the iron so it will hold a reasonable blob or solder and turn the
iron temperature up to 800 deg F or more (lower temperatures can lead to
frustration and long times before the lead is tinned).

73,
Don W3FPR

[hidden email] wrote:
> For my first several toroid windings, I have used a Bic lighter flame to
> burn off the coating on the wire tails, followed by a sanding with the
> supplied P180 sandpaper. I noticed it can burn up the wire fast and one of them
> lost the coating up to the core. Should I recoat, especially where the
> lead may touch the wound toroid, like the horizontal RFC11? What is a
> suitable recoat for the wire? Or am I being too picky?
>
>
>
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Byron N6NUL

Re: K2 Toroid Wire Coating

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

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Don Wilhelm-4

Re: K2 Toroid Wire Coating

Byron,

The toroids will work just fine with the outer wires not flat against
the core, but ---
Pulling on the wire is *not* the way to accomplish nice tight toroids.
The wire will break before it goes flat against the outside of the core.
The way to make nice tight turns is to use a fingertip to press the wire
against the outside of the core on *each* turn. No need to pull
excessively, just dress it up against the core.

73,
Don W3FPR

Byron Servies wrote:
> 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.
>
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Tom McCulloch

Re: K2 Toroid Wire Coating

In reply to this post by Don Wilhelm-4

I saved this originally posted by Ron, AC7AC of this list, I found it very
informative, in that " a picture is worth a thousand words" ...thanks Ron

http://emtech.steadynet.com/rm/tinning_200_l.ram

Tom WB2QDG
K2 1103

----- Original Message -----
From: "Don Wilhelm" <[hidden email]>
To: <[hidden email]>
Cc: <[hidden email]>
Sent: Monday, January 04, 2010 11:23 AM
Subject: Re: [Elecraft] K2 Toroid Wire Coating

> Bob,
>
> You are being too picky - the cores are not conductive. The only thing
> to be careful of is shorted turns. I normally tin the leads all the way
> up to the core unless there is a reason to leave an insulated lead (as
> there is on the KXB3080 LPF toroid L2).
>
> If you are using a flame, be careful you do not overheat the copper, and
> often the residue from a flame will leave a deposit that is difficult to
> remove and the solder will not adhere to it - so use only enough heat to
> melt the insulation and no more (do not stick the wire directly into the
> blue part of the flame).
>
> Try the solder blob method, it is easier and more clean - use a wide tip
> on the iron so it will hold a reasonable blob or solder and turn the
> iron temperature up to 800 deg F or more (lower temperatures can lead to
> frustration and long times before the lead is tinned).
>
> 73,
> Don W3FPR
>
> [hidden email] wrote:
>> For my first several toroid windings, I have used a Bic lighter flame to
>> burn off the coating on the wire tails, followed by a sanding with the
>> supplied P180 sandpaper. I noticed it can burn up the wire fast and one
>> of them
>> lost the coating up to the core. Should I recoat, especially where the
>> lead may touch the wound toroid, like the horizontal RFC11? What is a
>> suitable recoat for the wire? Or am I being too picky?
>>
>>
>>
> ______________________________________________________________
> Elecraft mailing list
> Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft
> Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm
> Post: mailto:[hidden email]
>
> This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net
> Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html