How imporatant is a perfect lay?

[dhenryp]

No, not that kind of lay. I've built a DIY inductor winding jig using my lathe to turn it and a counter jury rigged from a calculator. I also bought a 15lb spool of 16gauge ename coated "transformer" wire. So far so good.

My first couple of trial coils were reasonably tight and i used plastic ties to keep it together. They were, however, far short of a "perfect lay". I'm sure I could get it much better if I turned it by hand but it would take a lot longer to wind.

My question is; does it make all that much difference? I assume anything short of a tight, perfect lay will take a few extra turns for a given inductance. Aside from a few extra feet of wire and the corresponding slight increase in resistance (maybe 1-2%), is there any other downside?

Thanks,

Denis

[Stocker]

If your windings won't fit it's a problem. Otherwise, consider yourself human and don't envy the machines.