Linkage

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Transformer information.

Sometime back in 2001, my good friend from the Recordist list, Chris Preston, and I began our Sunday Afternoon telephone conferences, and very early on, a favorite topic was transformers.  For one silly moment, we thought we could actually fabricate our own iron!  Chris had experience winding guitar pickups, and I held Hope Eternal that about anything could be built in "the garage" (and VLSI chips could be built in the bathtub <g>).

In the course of my web searches, I ran across some interesting companies and materials suppliers.  I whined and pleaded a few times on the various Recordist lists, and gained some extra insight (Tom Bethel supplied a few useful links which are incorporated here).  All that being said, I'm still a LONG way from rolling my own....iron!

The Usual (and some unusual) Suspects, offering Finished Goods:

Jensen.  Probably the most famous brand in the US.  Plenty of info, schematics, and price lists.
Sowter.  Good Jensen alternative from the UK for many apps, including "vintage" restorations/clones.
Lundahl. Quality Swedish iron, including tooob amp transformers.
One-Electron.  Speaking of toobz, Recordist list contributor John Atwood offers nice SE iron and other related parts.  He also has founded the "Tech's Filing Cabinet", a great collection of Linkage.
Plitron.  Toroids R Us from Canada.
Hammond.  Also from Canada, iron, enclosures, and other goodies.
Carnhill.  UK manufacturer of some Neve iron.  USA contact is Vintech.
Stevens-Billington.  Another apparent Neve UK supplier.  One other Neve supplier who's name escapes me has "Radar" in their name.  Anyone remember??
 
 

Raw Materials:

These are a few suppliers, and their trade groups:

Magnetic Materials.  Laminations supplier.
Group Arnold.  Not exactly a supplier of transformer materials, but many useful links and papers.
EZcoil.  Directory of materials manufacturers.
Lodestone Pacific.  Toroid and ferrite supplier, but little about iron core trannies.
Cosmo Corp.  Bobbin maker that actually replied to a catalog request; the book has great engineering info.
T.E.A.M. trade show.  Transformer Equipment & Material Show, including an exhibitor list and links.
The Transformer Association.   Another trade group.
S.K. Guitar Specialties.   OK, not transformers, but guitar pickup winding is an allied art!
Rectangular Tube.  More parts for the power transformer builders, I'd surmise.
WS Hampshire.   Insulating materials.
ASCO.   Dang...wish I could find a supplier like this UK company here in the USA.
Italtec.  Winding machines from Italy.
 

Design Info:

Basic info.  Trannies-101.
DIY power tranny info.   Wish he'd included photos, but a useful site!
 
 

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