Why did the inner EE in me think this was going to be a power transformer lol

Would have been very interested. I know there are genius/insane people out there winding their own transformers.

Winding your own transformer is really not that big of a deal. Especially if you work in R&D as a power electronics engineer. No one waits for the custom transformer to be delivered to your bench when you were designing a new power supply.

For high power stuff though, you need some equipment to do that since copper will hard to bend neatly.

I didn't realize this was a think until I heard of people doing it in a a CRT forum.

I suspect it will be getting more popular as flyback transformers get harder and harder to find.

I first heard of it here: https://ludens.cl/paradise/turbine/turbine.html (CTRL+F transformer), a pretty fascinating DIY medium distance power transmission setup.

Very cool. What a slick setup.

It reminds me of a rabbit hole I went down once about off grid power generation using broken washing machines as turbines.

https://youtu.be/0ieFZI4-6K8

Could have been the cars that turn into robots for that matter