Out of desperation, I’m now building one of my more radical ideas. Admittedly, it’s not a great idea. I’d previously rejected it as having far too many different ways in which it could fail. But it is a way to overcome my endless problem of only being able to work with mild steel and its over-high Curie Point. So, instead of trying to find another way to keep the field coils cool, I’m planning to heat the entire prototype up–the field coil as well as the ferromagnetic core.

As I need to work from the inside to the outside, the first step is making a new core.

This time I’m using four core pies. These will be smaller than the previous ones and made from mild steel 1 and ½ inches wide, 1/16th inch think and 6 feet long. Stacked together the four pies will form a generating core that is 6 inches high and 3 ½ inches in diameter with a hollow 2 inch center.

This part, and my reasoning, is better explained on my website, but here’s a picture of the core being wound:

And here it is after coming out of the annealing oven:

And this is what the finished core looks like; note the electric connection tabs that protrude from each end.

Well, more to come later.