Description

Here's my power coiling guide that I've been using for years.
It consists of 2 pieces of wood and 4 carriage bolts.

Use carriage bolts such that the wire fed through doesn't run into screw threads (which would slice up the wire you're coiling).
Use at least 2 bolts near the top. This is what restricts the wire from turning into a propeller blade when tension is released.
The odd shape on one piece of the wood acts as a guide for the mandrel. It probably works the same with both pieces like that, but that just happened to be the shapes of the scrap-wood I had.

To use:
Feed wire between the 4 bolt, give a extra space such that it can be fed into a hand drill chuck. I typically have about 2 inches of wire dedicated to go into the drill chuck.
Tighten all 4 bolts by hand. This will provide tension while coiling.
Put the mandrel into the drill chuck. Feed the wire into the space in the drill chuck.
Last but not least: Clamp or hold the wooden jig and start coiling.

Safety Notes:
Always go hands free, if possible. If you have a table-mounted clamp, use it. Add a clamp point on the bottom of the jig by extending one of the blocks of wood down a bit.
If you use your hands, never let fingers get above the top bolts or behind the the mandrel guard.
The mandrel should be "free floating". Try to keep it straight.

Operation Tips:
Coil wraps over itself: Tighten bolts (add tension).
Wire falls out of drill: Loosen bolts or add more slack to be fed into the chuck.
Mandrel vibrates a lot while coiling: Coil at a lower speed, check straightness of mandrel.
Ending a coil: Stop coiling, reverse the drill a bit (release tension). Once you can slide the wire out of the drill chuck, you know there is no tension left and you can proceed to loosen the bolts and cut the wire.

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Tag(s): Coiling, Mandrel, Powerwind, Setup, Tools