Wire Wrapping Tool- CHEAP, QUALITY AND EASY!

by nikola501 in Circuits > Tools

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Wire Wrapping Tool- CHEAP, QUALITY AND EASY!

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Wire wrapping tool can be really expensive. But we are makers, makers hack, reuse and make new stuff outta old ones, so thats excatly what we are going to do in this instructable! :)

WHAT IS Wire Wrapping Technique?

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Altrough wire wrapping technique is really old, like from late 70' or something, i got in touch with it pretty recently. Its easy and nice way to prouce good connections for pins of various kind of boards (like arduino, breakout boards etc) with nice, secure and OCD friendly way. Tools for this are not so cheap, so even CHEAPEST ONE ON INTERNET ARE ABOUT 20$, witch is much, especially for me, who is coming from a country where you need to work for a two days straight to earn that. SO, LETS BUILT ONE! :) If youre one of thoose people who are perfectionist when it comes to making quality electronic, and you are making prototypes without pre-eached boards, or just enthusiast who wanna learn stuff, this is right tool (and instructable for you). Im reminding you all that im participating in "Build a tool" contest, so if you like my instructable, take a moment and vote for me, it would mean a lot to me :)

Obtain Materials and Tools:

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List of tools and materials is really short, from material you would only need:

-Some old, telescopic radio antenna

-Some wood, plastic, old pen (use your imagination) to make propper handle for this tool

From tools, you will need:

Hammer, pillers...some really basic tool witch you can find in almost any workshop. You would also need little bit of super glue and sanding paper

Building Tool

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Its really easy: break thickest part of antenna, and cut tip of it, to get out all smaller pipes. We will need thinnest one for our project. Sand it down for better glue applience and then use little bit of heatshrink, isolation tape or even a paper to make snug fit into handle. I 3d printed handle (i will upload file), but you can use pretty much anything, even some old pencil, to snug that pipe inside of it. Glue it down, taking care that HOLES ON ONE END OF PIPE ARE OUT, OTHER SIDE IS GOING INSIDE OF HANDLE!

i also wrapped whole thing in red isolation tape, for the sake of aesthetic and handling (i like my tool to be red, they are more visable on a full workbench

Downloads

Now, Use It!

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Technique going like this: you strip maybe 2cm of thin wire, put stripped end like its shown on picture, put it on pin and just wrap it. Im sure that theres some standard in witch direction and how much wraps are required per pin, but its up to you. After few you do, you will figure out how much stripped wire you need per pin and turns of tool.

Future Development and Ideas:

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Theres lotta motorized and automatized tools like this on market, but they are doing pretty much same job. In future maybe me (or whoever need this more than me) can feel free to use my idea and develop wire stripper at one end of tool. Also its not impossible to use some stepper motor in combination with arduino and to make baterry powered version. Also, you can use cordless drill anytime.

Thank you for reading this instructable, it is my third one i ever maked on this site and im really proud on it :) I would also like if you can vote for me on this tool making contest, it would mean me a lot :) Thank you!