Kia ora brainiac, love your work. I will try and get some pictures up soon. It is an 18F glass core, with a roll of steel mesh at the top and bottom of a cartridge, sandwiching a mass of ruby beads. I got some glass joints where the tube bulges out from the joint a little, meaning the bottom...
Have been lurking and learning here for a while and I've come up with a 10w baller GTR core that I'm really happy with the performance of. Shopping for a lathe at the moment to turn some bodies, and a soldering iron to wire them up with.
I'm wondering what gauge the stiff wire you all use is...