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Oh very nice thanks :) It would feel a bit like cheating though to just buy a ready made kit ;)

I wonder how they assemble the cores and the wires efficiently, because that was always the most painful part when working with the cores.

Edit: Typos

There's some really good core assembly footage in this old Sperry-Rand film: https://youtu.be/s39Dzei2Z2I?t=92

Threading the cores is indeed quite fiddly. I think back in the day, large numbers of seamstresses pivoted into manufacturing core memory!

If I recall correctly, the weaving was often done in Malta as it was the only place where the carpet weavers had fingers nimble enough to do it.

(edit) a bit of digging around turned up an article [0] showing women building core memory for the Apollo Guidance Computer.