so in the 'post your builds' thread, there is a ton of good information, questions and answers on everything from basic, to highly advanced builds and techniques. its quickly grown into an amazing resource, but its also quickly grown too large to find that info in. most of us have answered the same questions over and over again.
the idea for these 'the official x thread', is to get the information on 'x' (build/technique) all in one place so its easier to find, and consolidate the questions/answers/discussion a little bit, and leave that other thread for pics, chat and encouragement. This is the thread for clapton coils, and all their variants. feel free to ask questions, discuss variants and post tips and pics in here. links to all the 'official' threads are collected here, have a look through the rest for tips on everything from planning a build in steam-engine, beginner to advanced builds, and even coil photography.
coil info: clapton wire is made by putting a straightened piece of wire (your core wire) into the chuck of a drill, and the other end to some swivels, and then spooling a much smaller wire (your wrap, preferably 8 or more gauges smaller than your core) across the length of it to create a wire similar to guitar strings.
there are a lot of variations on the basic clapton (which is one core, and one wrap wire, which is usually/ideally around 10 gauges smaller than the core). the rest are variations of fused claptons (with 2 or more cores), like aliens and cat tracks, framed multicore, twisted etc...the clapton wrap technique is a requirement/ingredient in all the staples and stagger fused builds that have wraps of any kind as well. its truly the foundation of almost every other build.
tips:tension is one of the key elements of doing this build smoothly. the amount of grip you apply to the spool your wrap wire is coming off can make or break your build. you want to keep it the same all the way through, and not apply too much as you can cause your core wire to twist up and snap, or if your wrap wire is very small (40+ gauge) it will easily break
tips:angle is the other most important thing to maintain. you want your wrap wire to feed on at an angle slightly behind 90 degrees, towards your drill (so its wrapping slightly back toward the previous wraps). if you go too far back, your wraps will double up over themselves and start going backwards, so be careful. if you lean the angle too far forward, your wraps will have spaces in between them.
tips:there are times when you want looser wraps that can slide off the core wire, to be used for other builds (like aliens), and times when you will want space between the wraps instead of them touching tight together.
tips:its a pretty forgiving technique if you make a mistake, just reverse your drill and unwrap the bad part and try again.
pics:some fused claptons in a petri rda
here is a classic tutorial on fused claptons (the two core variant)
the idea for these 'the official x thread', is to get the information on 'x' (build/technique) all in one place so its easier to find, and consolidate the questions/answers/discussion a little bit, and leave that other thread for pics, chat and encouragement. This is the thread for clapton coils, and all their variants. feel free to ask questions, discuss variants and post tips and pics in here. links to all the 'official' threads are collected here, have a look through the rest for tips on everything from planning a build in steam-engine, beginner to advanced builds, and even coil photography.
coil info: clapton wire is made by putting a straightened piece of wire (your core wire) into the chuck of a drill, and the other end to some swivels, and then spooling a much smaller wire (your wrap, preferably 8 or more gauges smaller than your core) across the length of it to create a wire similar to guitar strings.
there are a lot of variations on the basic clapton (which is one core, and one wrap wire, which is usually/ideally around 10 gauges smaller than the core). the rest are variations of fused claptons (with 2 or more cores), like aliens and cat tracks, framed multicore, twisted etc...the clapton wrap technique is a requirement/ingredient in all the staples and stagger fused builds that have wraps of any kind as well. its truly the foundation of almost every other build.
tips:tension is one of the key elements of doing this build smoothly. the amount of grip you apply to the spool your wrap wire is coming off can make or break your build. you want to keep it the same all the way through, and not apply too much as you can cause your core wire to twist up and snap, or if your wrap wire is very small (40+ gauge) it will easily break
tips:angle is the other most important thing to maintain. you want your wrap wire to feed on at an angle slightly behind 90 degrees, towards your drill (so its wrapping slightly back toward the previous wraps). if you go too far back, your wraps will double up over themselves and start going backwards, so be careful. if you lean the angle too far forward, your wraps will have spaces in between them.
tips:there are times when you want looser wraps that can slide off the core wire, to be used for other builds (like aliens), and times when you will want space between the wraps instead of them touching tight together.
tips:its a pretty forgiving technique if you make a mistake, just reverse your drill and unwrap the bad part and try again.
pics:some fused claptons in a petri rda
here is a classic tutorial on fused claptons (the two core variant)
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in cases where you cant see your wire because its too small, try a light of some kind to reflect off of it. i wear a headlamp thats always pointing at what im working on, and that lights it up quite well for me...
you are a gentleman and a scholar.
