Are paper bobbins really superior to plastic bobbins in output transformers? How about power transformers?
No. Both paper and plastic are non-magnetic and non-conductive. The only way they can affect a magnetic field is by taking up space and therefore excluding either a conductor or a magnetic material from that space. As long as the winding window is reasonably filled with turns of copper wire, the effect of one bobbin material versus another is essentially impossible to find even with sensitive lab instruments designed for work on such things. The business about paper bobbins being thinner and letting the copper wires be nearer the core is nonsense. The entire iron core “conducts” the magnetic flux. Moving a turn of copper a tiny fraction of an inch closer to the center leg moves it that same fraction further from the outer leg. As long as the dimensions for paper and plastic bobbins are not grossly different (and the differences between old paper -actually glued-up cardboard- bobbins and plastic bobbins are tiny) then there is no reason that the magnetics should be affected at all. Ther
