A pre-fitting nest and a method serve for forming a crown from a plurality of U-shaped electrically conductive hairpins to then be able to install the crown in a machine element of an electric machine, e.g., a stator. Here, an accommodating member has a plurality of grooves in which the legs of the hairpins are accommodated. The grooves are annularly disposed about a center and extend perpendicularly to the plane of the accommodating member. With respect to their size and geometry, they are configured such that in each case a first leg of a hairpin rotates within the groove thus to enable an unconstrained positioning of the second leg of the hairpin in another groove. One or several crowns formed from hairpins are provided for introduction into a machine element and inserted into the machine element.