A laminated stator and a method for making a laminated stator of an electric motor. The method includes arranging a plurality of stator laminations into lamination stacks spaced axially from one another, each lamination stack including a first group of stator laminations including an annular portion and a plurality of tooth portions extending from a periphery of the annular portion, and a second group of stator laminations including only tooth portions positioned to correspond with the tooth portions of said first group. The method further includes winding stator windings around selected subsets of the plurality of teeth while the lamination stacks are spaced axially and meshing the lamination stacks with one another so the annular portions of the lamination stacks are axially adjacent one another and the plurality of teeth are intermeshed with the plurality of another stack.