Winding your own Inductors

[Bryan]

Hello all:

Is there a gauge of wire which is preferred for winding inductors. Is the gauge that important as long as you use the calculations in the many available calculators to determine the final inductance (assume current may be the biggest factor?). Any preferences? I find too fine a gauge tends to want to unwrap vs a thicker gauge.

Cheers

[coppice]

The thickness of the copper in your inductor wire is about achieving an acceptable amount of resistance, and consequent power dissipation. The thickness of the insulation on the wire is about achieving the required insulation performance. If you need super thick wire, bendability may become an issue. If the only need extremely thin wire, breakage during winding may become an issue.

[tron9000]

I recently wound my own for a project. I found that superglue held the coil in place quite well on the core (iron nail)

[madires]

The most important point which determines the minimum wire gauge required is the current the inductor has to pass. Usually the cross section is about three times what you would select for a simple wire, because the wire is wound dense and in layers (-> heat dissipation). You can download some nice charts from a few web sites.

[CJay]

Depends on frequency, skin effect, interwinding capacitance, spacing, wire plating, insulation type and many other factors including wire guage can all have an effect when you're dealing with high frequencies.

So, it's not an easy question to answer unless you define what the inductor is going to be used for