The Formvar insulated wire (old term: "enameled wire") will
be on spools. Some small quantities are sold in palm sized spools, and
these quantities may do for small transformers, or where you have several
separate windings. But it is a bad idea to splice magnet wire in a winding,
whether professional or just hobby stuff! Take advice from someone who
has done it eight ways: Never, never plan on splicing, and if you
break a winding in progress after fewer than 100 turns, or run out of wire
at that point, UNwind it, and begin again, after you put that full spool
up there! Back to my point, here: You will want to rig some kind of support
for a piece of 1/2" dia. steel rod, say, 10-12" long, between supports,
onto which you can place the spool of wire you will be winding, next. When
pulling that wire end over to start it onto your winding bobbin, make sure
it is free and kink free, before you start. Don't forget to "Zero" the
counter before you begin, with each successive winding!
But first! Consider terminations! There are several ways to terminate
transformer winding ends. If the winding wire is fairly hefty, you might
just slip spaghetti insulation over the first/last few inches, and let
the winding ends, themselves, be "lead wire" for the particular winding
in question. You can surely do this for wire gage #20 or smaller number
(larger wire). For large, flat "wire", you can even sand off the Formvar
on the last 1/2" or so, and drill a hole in the middle of the flat "wire",
making a "solder lug" right on the end of the winding copper, itself. But
for tiny wire, say, thinner than #22, you would be well advised to carefully
sand off and tin the last couple inches of winding wire, wrap that nicely
around the tinned tip of a nice piece of hook-up wire of appropriate size,
color, and insulation type, solder properly. Then, lay fiber tape under,
and on top of the joint, making a flat taped up connection, and tape this
in place on the bobbin paper.
Jan
Rowland