Wow, my last post on this thread was in January! Where has the time gone? Oh yeah, other projects.
Anyway, I guess I never told you all that I finally got the plates done. That was a while ago. But I've been stuck trying to decide whether to reuse the aluminum wire, or buy new copper wire. The aluminum has the advantage of being free, but I'd have a much lower power rating on the transformer when finished. New copper would give me a much higher maximum power, but I have to buy it. With limited funds, and multiple projects competing for money, it was actually something I had to think about for a while.
Finally decided on new copper. Not only that, but also a new tool to help me keep track of the number of turns. But first I had to get the old wire back off.

I picked 16 AWG which will give me a maximum power of 360W. Good thing I didn't go any bigger, as the coils just barely fit. Here's the counting machine I got with the spool adapted to it.

The counter machine is supposed to let you do winding faster with the little handle on the side, but 16 AWG wire is really stiff, so I wound up (no pun intended) just turning the spool by hand, and using the counter to keep track. It's actually very accurate.
167 turns later, the first coil is done.

I used the original insulator between the coils, and did another 167 turns on the second coil. It also has a center tap at turn 84, because the box it goes in has three holes in one side, so may as well. Gotta remember though that the center tap will be 60V, and at 3A, that means it's only good to 180W, as opposed to the 360W using the end taps.

I did a few maths before and after I started. Knowing the circumference of the spool, I estimated that I'd use about 124 feet of wire. That includes about 10% extra for good luck. Not knowing the circumference of the finished primary coil, I took my best guess that 167 feet of wire would be enough. Adding more extra, I figured a 300 foot spool would cover it. Seems everyone sells copper wire by the pound instead of the foot. So I got 2.5 lbs. of wire estimated at 315 feet. It all worked out, as i have a fair amount left over.
Later, I did more calcs and figured that at 124 feet, my primary coil should have about 0.5 Ohms from end to end. That is what I got on my multi-meter. Measuring the resistance of the secondary coil, I got 0.6 Ohms. That roughly translated back to around 150 feet. Or about 120% of the length of the primary. So I over estimated how much wire I'd need by quite a lot, but better to have more than enough than less.