Direction the wire must be in when winding a coil for a coilgun?

Question

I'm trying to make a less involved and mostly more basic coil gun. My question is about the coil itself. When winding it, I did it so that every individual coil was snug in between the previous and next turn. This being time consuming, led me to only make about enough turns to equal about 2.5 inches long, and only one layer thick. will it still work if i wind the wire in a "random" manner, but at the same time, having the directionality of the wire be uniform? Also can someone possibly explain how to layer the wire? People say to be sure to use insulate in between layers, but after I finish the first layer, should i then wind the wire over the taped first layer in the opposite direction the first wire was wound in? Thanks!

Answer 1

Try asking this question in the engineering category. Those guys are pretty smart.

Answer 2

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