A system for winding wire, comprising: a) a wire take-up unit including a rotatable first mandrel portion and rotatable second mandrel portion, a third mandrel portion which is configured to alternately join with the first and second mandrel portions to form a complete mandrel on which to wind wire into a coil, and a wire directing traverse, said traverse arranged to feed wire and alternately form coils on the first and second mandrel portions when joined to the third mandrel portion, wherein each coil is wound in a figure-eight configuration; b) a wire cutter/grabber unit configured to cut the wire at a cut position between said traverse and a coil formed on said first mandrel portion and to grab a free end of the cut wire and move along a predefined cutter/grabber pathway to a hand-off position where the wire is transferred to said second mandrel portion, characterized in that as the cutter/grabber is moved along the cutter/grabber pathway from the cut position to the hand-off position, a length of wire between said traverse and the free end of the wire does not decrease, and the length of wire between the traverse and the free end of the wire is longer at the hand-off position than at the cut position; and in that the system for winding wire further comprises: c) a cutter/grabber positioning system coupled to the wire take-up unit at an upper end and coupled to said cutter/grabber at a lower end, the cutter/grabber positioning system disposed vertically above the cutter/grabber and configured to position the cutter/grabber along the cutter/grabber pathway, said positioning system includes a multi-jointed arm having an upper arm and a lower arm configured to pivot relative to one another in a plane common to the upper and lower arms and having a first drive unit configured to rotate at least one of the upper and lower arms (1010,1012), and said positioning system including a second drive unit configured to translate said arm and said first drive unit in a direction parallel to the traverse, wherein said positioning system is configured to maintain said cutter/grabber in a horizontal orientation as the cutter/grabber moves throughout the cutter/grabber pathway. a) a wire take-up unit including a rotatable first mandrel portion and rotatable second mandrel portion, a third mandrel portion which is configured to alternately join with the first and second mandrel portions to form a complete mandrel on which to wind wire into a coil, and a wire directing traverse, said traverse arranged to feed wire and alternately form coils on the first and second mandrel portions when joined to the third mandrel portion, wherein each coil is wound in a figure-eight configuration; b) a wire cutter/grabber unit configured to cut the wire at a cut position between said traverse and a coil formed on said first mandrel portion and to grab a free end of the cut wire and move along a predefined cutter/grabber pathway to a hand-off position where the wire is transferred to said second mandrel portion, characterized in that as the cutter/grabber is moved along the cutter/grabber pathway from the cut position to the hand-off position, a length of wire between said traverse and the free end of the wire does not decrease, and the length of wire between the traverse and the free end of the wire is longer at the hand-off position than at the cut position; and in that the system for winding wire further comprises: c) a cutter/grabber positioning system coupled to the wire take-up unit at an upper end and coupled to said cutter/grabber at a lower end, the cutter/grabber positioning system disposed vertically above the cutter/grabber and configured to position the cutter/grabber along the cutter/grabber pathway,