The Levitated Dipole Experiment (LDX) is an innovative approach to explore
the magnetic confinement of fusion plasma. ii superconducting solenoid (flo
ating coil) is magnetically levitated for up to 8 hours in the center of a
5-meter diameter vacuum vessel. The floating coil maximum field is 5.3 T, a
nd a react-and-wind Nb3Sn conductor was selected to enable continued field
production as the coil warms from 5 K during the experiment up to a final t
emperature of about 10 K. The coil is wound using an 18-strand Rutherford c
able soldered into a half-hard copper channel, and is self protected during
quench. The;coil is insulated during winding and then vacuum impregnated w
ith epoxy. The impregnated coil is tested with 2 kA operating current at 4.
2 K, and then a single, low resistance joint is formed at the outer diamete
r of the coil. before the coil is enclosed in ifs toroidal helium vessel. T
his paper presents details of the coil design and manufacturing procedures,
with special attention to the techniques used to protect the coil from exc
essive strain damage throughout the manufacturing process.