unused PT filament windings?

[mike_mccue]

I'm looking at the Hammond Transformer listings and it seems most of the time I see a suitable voltage and current capacity for the power tubes that the transformer also has 5vAC heater leads.

It seems that there aren't many suitable B+ with 6.3vAC choices that do not also include 5vAC.

That's great if you are running a tube rectifier.

What do you do if you want to assemble a bridge rectifier out of diodes?

Do you just terminate or find a use for the 5vAC leads? Shrink wrap? A Pilot light?

thanks,
mike

[Old Tele man]

...ALL unused windings should be taped/insulated and otherwise left alone.

[tubeswell]

Yep I put a couple of layers of heat-shrink overlapping the bare end of each unwanted wire, and tuck the ends away somewhere where they ain't going to cause grief (but keep the wires there for a rainy day).

[mike_mccue]

thanks.

[Enzo]

Personally, I prefer to have the unused wires terminate on a terminal strip. But that is just another way of keeping them out of the way of everything else as suggested above.

[Diablo]

How about using plastic insulated twist connector nuts. One for each wire.

[Old Tele man]

How about using plastic insulated twist connector nuts. One for each wire.

...unless those "house electrician twist nuts" are firmly tied-down somewhere, they'll "rattle" like mad inside a chassis when vibrated.

...shrink tubing and tie-wraps work well.

[Enzo]

The bottom line is this, no matter how you do it, you want the wires secure, and unable to touch something else electrically. The transformer itself doesn;t care at all whether you actually use the winding or not.