recycling copper for coils

[blueyonder]

 well ive got a few things to say.

 so first im very sorry to all them loud music lovers .who like loud music.

 so with that out the way i can start.

 the more i understand the more i see . or maybe the more i see the more i understand.

  but nowadays i look at things in a NEW LIGHT.  (RE TYPE LIGHT)

   i have always  been into recycling .  but i must be honest sumthings to me were just junk.  

  nothing i could do to recycle them. so they went to the dump.

  but now i cant wait to take things apart to see what bits i can use in the making of my new mill.

  i am not very good with electrical things.  but times are changing .

  sum times just taking a thing apart with help me understand a bit more.

  and as cash is in short supply . then if its possible i can get coils from my efforts

 then it will save me getting new wire.

  plus i enjoy taking things to bits. always have done .

  its sum thing ive done from a kid.

  hope im not weird.

   there are times i need to put it all back again but this amp wont ever make no more noise.  yes im building a hummer .not a 4x4 . a wind gen.

  when i looked inside the amp i had so menny  thoughts   .

  i struck gold here i thought. but inside the big round thing was a steel ring .

  looked like a flat strip all coiled up . might make a good door stop in the summer.

   but i got a fair bit wire from it.  enough to make 8 coils.

 in the pics there are 11 coils. . other three were from sum thing else .

  as the wire is not all the same i will have to keep looking . till i can match up enough for five pairs . five phase .10 coils.

   the magnets i need to pay for.  unless i get hold of a truck load of hard drives .

  also i got 2 nice heat sinks. big and meaty.

  and menny other bits but this is about recycling for coils

  it might take me longer to get ten matching coils.

   i understand its frowned upon to re-use old wire for winding coils.

    but i find sum of the wire has great enamel on it .

    i just need to avoid stuff that was made in china .

 i will post a new write up next recycling job i do .

    i am not a bad person but i did put two other guys in hospital when a fight broke out  inside the dumpster.  .  yes i was lucky in finding that.

[s4w2099]

I am drooling all over that toroid...

[Chagrin]

That was my thought too. That toroid is (was) worth more than the value of the copper on it.

[oztules]

Looks like it's coming along nicely. I too have been forced to use recycled wire in a recent project.

I found that to get straight wire (straighten out the bends and kinks) that three 6203 bearings arranged close together and screwed onto the bench, straightens the wire without damaging the enamel. .. feed wire between and around bearings...(will post pics if you like ).

More scrounging required for the last coils.... best of luck with finding another toroid of that size.

.......oztules

[tecker]

I made some drip for the reuse wire it seems to work .It's kinda like

Q dope a product made by GC electronics . Take some Polystierine (white ice chests ) and melt in a jar with MEK not a lot of stierine just enough to give it some body and light enough so it goes in around the windings dip the coils in sveral times . A good meter with a known resistance is good here to see if the resistance changes if it goes up you insulated a short and a rewind is good idea if it stays the same and all give the same voltage in a test jig you should be good to go . Outside ventilation with MEK and no heater around .This stuff dries super fast when made thin. Tight lid on the jar .

[mbeland]

Please explain what is MEK.
Also, what is polystierine. Is it polystyrene?

Thanks Martin

[mbeland]

I would like the pics

Martin

[mbeland]

Very interesting. How do you measure wire gauge to make sure you get what you need for your generator? Do you think old tv sets could contain valuable and usable wire?

Thanks, Martin

[blueyonder]

 you say you have sum pics. that would be great.

 what i do now is wind it on to a drum .right hand turning drum

 and left hand with big thick glove trying to take out the kinks.

 its hard work. it also starts to make my left hand hurt.

  so lets use our brains instead of brawn.

  sorry about the torrid.

[ghurd]

TV degaussing coils are a lot easier to use, because the wire isn't glued together.

The loop run around the entire screen, and are usually wrapped in regular black tape.

The wire is smaller, usually a bit smaller than #20.

The bigger the TV, the better.  32" is a nice score (more turns, more feet and heavier).  But even 15" monitors have quite a bit of #22.

For a reasonable sized project, it would need "2-in-hand winding" so the resistance is lower.

Cheap and easy way to get started playing with small stuff.

G-

[Chagrin]

MEK = methyl ethyl ketone.

[oztules]

Yes I did it like that for a short while, and realised it was not satisfactory.

Here is a pic of the three bearings screwed to the desk. The large washers allow you to move the bearings for different tension and wire sizes.... just release screw pressure, slide bearings closer (more tension) or further apart (less tension, larger wire etc.)

The wire goes in kinked... and comes out straight, kinkless, and removes any loose varnish.... note I mean only loose varnish. It won't get it all off.

Here is where the wire came from. The one on the right still has wire, the left one has been stripped of the goodies.

and ended up in here.... 3KW 1440 3 phase 415v... emergency rewind for an industrial (Fish) freezer, and I had no wire the right size, but those plastic stators did (thanks to Bryan and Dennis). So my first rewind was a desperate 1 day learning curve. The sleeving paper was donated by Zubbly, along with the knowledge to do it. Without knowing him, I would not have dreamed of attempting this

Used fibreglass resin for the coils. I sincerely hope I never have to visit this motor again.... will be hell to get the resin out of everywhere.

There is more work ahead for the wire straightener I'm afraid......

Best of luck with it........oztules

[spinningmagnets]

YES! Please post pics. I can afford new wire, but...

If I can keep an eye out trash items that have a desireable gauge of wire in it, well, the less spent on wire, the more I can spend on other parts.

How hard would it be to add some enamel to salvaged wire?

[tecker]

Polystrienen is the foam that is compressed into ice chests.

[tecker]

The yoke is also easy to unwind.

[blueyonder]

 thanks oztules.  its sum thing i must do soon to help get the kinky bits out.

 maybe one day i will bye a reel of nice new wire. strait as a arrow.

 but till then i will make up a thing like you have done.

 to be honest ive seen things like that before .they were called pre-formers.i think.

 and were  used in the wire rope manufacturing trade .

  copper wire is tough stuff.

  for mbeland  depending whare you live in the world .wire size is in AWG. or metric.

  metric speaks for itself.  with AWG you can do a search on here . loads of charts that will explain.  thin sheet metal also has a gauge .

  at first it dont make sence .but once you get the hang of it its no problem.

  in the UK  we had SWG  which is different again from AWG but now were metric.

  but we still measure every thing in thu. thats parts of a inch.

  i will add a few pics of my winding set-up.

  a heavy one to wind the loose wire on. then wind it again onto a small wood drum.

 then from there i can wind a coil.

  its all good stuff recycling.

  you done a nice job oztules on that rewind . stop the fish going off.

  and when we die the government want to recycle us. or bits of us.

   i just want to go to the bone orchard and push up a few daisy's.

   but weather i do or not i will never know.

   now i got to go and look at the moon . its a eclipse tonight.

  moon -earth -sun.  hope i dont start howling .

   you wont see the eclipse if your in aus .  but north and south America can.

 as well as Europe.  its a moon eclipse not a sun.  or even a lunar one.

  better get my telescope out .and watch for the clouds.  

  if its not got cloud cover and i get a pic  that looks good .maybe i can post it here.

   now if i can just get my mill in front of the moon it will look great .

   and my next project .looking inside old tvs lol.  

   

[tecker]

Polystene not polystriene You are quite right .