Meccano Coil Winding Machine

Introduction - The coil winding machine according to Gjalt van Slooten

This Meccano coil winding machine has been designed and constructed by Gjalt van Slooten (1927-1992). Gjalt van Slooten lived in Drachtstercompagnie and was a well known member of the Meccano Guild Netherlands (MGN). The prototyping of the machine started in 1986 and took 3 years to finish.

Meccano coil winding machine

How did the coil winding machine come back into the picture?

Although Gjalt was a member of the Meccano Gilde Nederland from its inception in 1982, the coil winding machine has never been described or published in detail, except for a small B/W picture in a 1992 MGN jubilee booklet. It’s one of the few - if not only - tangible reminders of this elaborate model. Gjalt unfortunately passed away the same year and the machine was soon lost to sight. Thanks to Rinze van Slooten, the son of Gjalt’s brother, the coil winding machine came back into the picture.

Following the publication of the first edition of Meccano Monuments, Rinze contacted the Meccano Kinematics team early 2023 and after a few conversations, the coil winding machine came up as a possible model for publishment. In september 2023 the coil winding machine, along with all its accompanying documentation, was loaned for study with the goal of producing a comprehensive description.

The results of the afore mentioned study is recorded in a new publication of Meccano Monuments. In addition a video of the working of the model can be viewed on YouTube.

The VirtualMEC model

With the machine standing in front of me I was able to make a 3D computermodel in VirtualMec. Those who want to build the model I strongly recommend to download the 3D Virtualmec model.

The explanatory of the coilwinding machine

Whilst the VirtualMec model is the actual modelplan, the Meccano Monuments publication is merely an explanatory of the machine and it’s workings, together with some background info regarding the historical context and a short bio about Gjalt van Slooten. This 28 page PDF booklet can be downloaded here. Be aware, that this pdf file is in dutch, but you can always use google translator and some parts don’t even require a translation as they speak for themselves. The booklet is not only an informative document, but is also a tribute to the creator Gjalt van Slooten.

Extract of the explanatory (january 2026)