I want to make a transformer that steps down mains AC voltage. My researched showed that the best kind of material for core would be laminated iron sheets. Unfortunatelly, these are very hard to buy. Looks like you can only get ferrite cores online.
So is there some different material, that is easily accessible by regular hobbyists, that can be used for making transformer cores? It should be able to buy it in local stores.
I'm aware that I could salvage core from old electrical appliance like TV or microwave, but that is cost inefficient if you don't already have that appliance. So I'm looking for some better alternative.
Edit – I'm located in Eastern Europe, if that helps.
Best Answer
You don't divulge your location so it is hard to gauge what might be present in your local stores, but you can buy toroidal transformer kits with pre-wound primaries (117VAC) and just add the secondary winding. Here is a supplier.
The volts per turn varies with VA as shown in this table:
You can get cores from old products you might find at the curb on garbage day (or at recycling of electronics days) but most modern products use switching power supplies- microwave ovens being an exception, but even there many newer models are of the "inverter" type.
Hopefully you can do better than this homemade welding transformer: