$50 Hobby-Lathe Coil-Winder

[tbryanh]

I think I found the ultimate entry-level coil winder.
Its a lathe that uses a 1/2" drive electric drill.
http://www.grizzly.com/products/H2669

It cost about $50 and does not come with the drill.

I found this blog about how to use a cheap calculator as a counter.
You hook a microswitch across the "equals" key on the keypad.
I already converted a calculator this way, and I will put a little bump on the drill chuck to trip the switch.

If anybody is interested in the calculator counter, let me know, and I will dig up the link.

[tbryanh]

Can a variac be used to control the speed of the motor?

Will this be safe for the motor?

I have a nice Milwaukie drill, so I do not want to damage it.

[OFM]

I use the calculator method in my "Super poor winder"...

I didn't spend more than 20 bucks building my winder and it works very well...

http://lh6.google.com/image/jsantacruz/Rgey7sNwc3I/AAAAAAAAAOc/neSSR3iI7vI/DSCN0023.JPG
http://lh5.google.com/image/jsantacruz/RgeyQcNwcpI/AAAAAAAAAMs/yW4I_zEM_PU/DSCN0009.JPG

It appears to be a piece of junk, but it works very well for me...

[Tom Phillips]

Can a variac be used to control the speed of the motor? Will this be safe for the motor?...
The short answer is No. A regular AC motor will bog down and overheat if you just try to reduce the voltage to lower the speed. If you google "Motor speed control" you will probably find some additional information.
Regards,
Tom

[Satamax]

For variating the speed, use this!

http://www.conrad.fr/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?catalogId=10001&storeId=10001&productId=211760&langId=-2&ItemHighLightId=211762&from_fh=1 it's in french ok, but looking at the part number you might find somewhere else! :D

[parentheticalfact]

To lower the speed of an ac motor, try a ceiling fan speed control or a light dimmer available at a home improvement store. These are designed for ac motors and such and work quite well. Just make your motor doesn't require more amperage than the speed control has available.

[tbryanh]

Last night I thought of a ceiling fan control, but my drill is 7 amps. Ceiling fans are about a 1/4 amp. The control might work if the drill is not worked too hard, but at $20 a crack, I don't think I want to play with it.

It appears that a speed control for a router is the way to go. Well, thats adding another $30-$40 dollars to the deal. Well . . .

The router speed controls do not work for soft of slow start routers (?). I don't think a drill is slow or soft start. Does anybody know?

Here are some links to the router speed controls
http://www.rockler.com/ecom7/product_details.cfm?offerings_id=10760&gcid=S11135x012&keyword=router%20speed%20control&cookietest=1&gord=1
http://www.mlcswoodworking.com/shopsite_sc/store/html/smarthtml/pages/speedcon.html
http://www.woodzone.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Product_Code=828122
http://www.highlandwoodworking.com/index.asp?PageAction=VIEWPROD&ProdID=1908

[Tom Phillips]

I have never seen or heard of a drill motor that uses soft start like some routers do. That feature is very nice in a high powered router but not real ly needed for a drill.
Regards,
Tom

[tbryanh]

I use the calculator method in my "Super poor winder"...

I didn't spend more than 20 bucks building my winder and it works very well...

http://lh6.google.com/image/jsantacruz/Rgey7sNwc3I/AAAAAAAAAOc/neSSR3iI7vI/DSCN0023.JPG
http://lh5.google.com/image/jsantacruz/RgeyQcNwcpI/AAAAAAAAAMs/yW4I_zEM_PU/DSCN0009.JPG

It appears to be a piece of junk, but it works very well for me...
How are you doing speed control?

[Dan Gilmore]

Harbor Freight has a router speed control (item 43060) on sale now:

www.harborfreight.com

I have used one on a limited basis and it seems okay. It says on the case that it isn't for use on brushless motors or soft start routers. $10 bucks

...Glad I put the item number in, since my direct link didn't work.

[tbryanh]

It looks like my Milwaukee Magnum 0299-20 drill needs to be a brush-type.

I cannot find a blowup of the drill, and the online manual does not mention anything about brushes one way or the other.

I have seen brush-type drills with side caps that allow access to the brushes. My drill does not have side caps, but it still might have brushes.

It appears I need to take my drill apart. I really don't want to take it apart. If it has brushes, I might not be able to get it back together.

[OFM]

How are you doing speed control?

I use a 12V DC Motor, so I use a variable voltage power supply for speed control, and to reverse the polarity. I measured the Power Supply to reach the 12V and I don't use more voltage than needed (my motor is 12V)...

(please, don't use a chinese power supply without measure, this one gives 20v when it's supposed to give 12)

My winder has a very very VERY simple design, and the only thing i bought at the store was the DC Motor (it costed me 15 US$) but it works great. I had some troubles finding the circular metal piece which I use to hold the bobbins, but I took them from an old non-working sewing machine.

Greetings,
Ben

PS: The motor I bought turns at 220RPM at 12v and has enough torque to wind any pickup at any tension (as opposed to Stewmac winder, which slows down at higher pressure). I hold the bobbins with double-sided tape.

[David Schwab]

It looks like my Milwaukee Magnum 0299-20 drill needs to be a brush-type.

Don't you have a variable speed drill? I've seen people rig up a cable to the drill's trigger attached to a foot pedal.

Personally I'd rather go with a DC motor and speed control... drills are too noisy.

I have one of those Harbor Freight router speed controls. They work great. Never tried it on my DeWalt drill though.

Also if you just want to hold a drill, this lathe is over kill. You don't need the lathe bed.

Here's a hand drill powered winder (with calculator counter) someone made over at the MIMF forum.

[tbryanh]

I have seen pictures where a clamp was used on the trigger of the drill, but this makes it hard to duplicate a setting before powering up the drill. I never thought of a cable to the drill trigger. That is very nice. The setup in the photo you supplied is very nice.

I plan to wind inductor coils as well as guitar pickups. I chose a drill because it has a chuck. I feel that a chuck is versatile and will allow me to wind inductor coils too.

The lathe bed might not be as overkill as you think. For my setup and skill with woodworking, duplicating the unit in the photo would be difficult for me, and I do not think my results would be very good. I do not make guitars or anything like that. I am focused on pickups and amps. The lathe bed is also versatile in that it allows me to set the drill up as a grinder or metal sander which will come in handy shaping or deburing aluminum parts that I make. Since I have no other shop power tools other than the drill, this will be helpful.

Please explain what the MIMF forum is.

Thanks very much for your feedback.

[David Schwab]

Please explain what the MIMF forum is.

Music Instrument Makers Forum.

http://www.mimf.com/

It's a great place. Some of the people you find here are also there...

[tbryanh]

The Milwaukee Magnum 0299-20 drill has a Brush Card Assembly inside the drill.
http://www.milwaukeetool.com/us/en/partpdfs.nsf/PDFView/9F06ECF9BD51261E86256BD500400EB4/$file/54-06-0125.pdf

[NewYorkDave]

...a lathe that uses a 1/2" drive electric drill.

Hey, thanks for the link. I need a simple winder to make inductors for equalizers and filters, and I don't have the patience, mechanical skill or (frankly) the desire to attempt anything much more complex than the ol' "hand drill clamped in a vise." But this looks nearly perfect for my needs; just add a drill, a counter, some sort of bobbin holder and you're good to go. If the 24" bed turns out to be too long and cumbersome--and it probably will unless you're into winding giant solenoids or, umm, using the thing as a lathe--you can take a hacksaw to it.

I'm new here. Hello, everybody.

[tbryanh]

I haven't like the results of the lathe/drill setup so far.

I used an external speed contol device that was made for a router. It really didn't control the speed well. The speed varied alot depending on how much tension was on the wire being fed.
I used a microswitch and a modified calculator as a counting device, but the microswitch skipped counts, and you couldn't read the calcultator until you stopped the drill.

I am not sure if I need the tourque of a drill. It has plenty though if you need it.


I plan to try out a sewing machine instead. It has a foot pedal speed control already, and you just mount the coil form to the flywheel. A counter is still an issue.

Check out this link: Sewing Machine Coil Winder?
http://music-electronics-forum.com/showthread.php?t=3608&highlight=sewing+machine

Anyway, I am not winding any coils now, but I plan to in the future, so I am still interested in the subject.

[NewYorkDave]

Does the drill mount look like it could be made to accomodate a manually-cranked drill? (I can't really tell from the photo). That would give you full control over speed and torque. Most hand drills have a gear ratio on the order of 3.5 or 4 to 1, so your wrist shouldn't get too tired unless you're winding something with a bazillion turns.

Are you using a debouncing circuit between your tally switch and the counter? If you want to try a mechanical counter, here's an inexpensive one that looks like it could be adapted to many coil winder applications:

http://www.wttool.com/product-exec/product_id/10837/nm/Recording_Rotation_Counter

I like the fact that it has both CW and CCW driveshafts--and, of course, the all-important reset!

Part of the appeal of the hobby lathe to me is the conical tailstock spindle, which would be perfect for holding round bobbins against a flat plate chucked into the drill. (I'm planning on winding pot-core inductors, mostly). This isn't likely something you'd use for guitar pickup bobbins, though.

[tbryanh]

The drill mount wouldn't work with the Milwaukee drill that I already had. The drill mount in the lathe is stout, but it is cast aluminum, so I was afraid to mess with it too much.

I wound up buying their drill that the lathe was based on. Of course I like the Milwaukee drill better.

Seeing that I wind very few coils, a hand drill might be the way to go. Making a hand drill fit is an issue though. It might be there is one out there that will fit. Maybe the handle of the hand drill can be put in the mount instead of the area by the chuck, but that sounds a little unstable.

I would be interested in fitting a hand drill in there.

I don't think debouncing the mechanical switch I used would help. If the drill turned slow, it worked, but once you get up to a speed you like, it floats and does not count at all.

I like the looks of that mechanical counter.
http://www.wttool.com/product-exec/product_id/10837/nm/Recording_Rotation_Counter
It looks like it would work. The price sure is right.

The conical tailstock spindle does look like it would work for holding round bobbins against a flat plate chucked into the drill. I never though of that.

My concept was to put a 3/8" hardware bolt into the chuck and wind wire on the bolt.

I'm not sure what a pot-core inductor is?

[SonnyW]

Can a variac be used to control the speed of the motor?

Will this be safe for the motor?

I have a nice Milwaukie drill, so I do not want to damage it.

I definitely would advise against using a variac to control a drill motor. I've got a big old General Radio one that I thought was big enough to do that, and I tried once to use it with a 1/2 black and decker drill to re-spool some 22awg wire that I had. It worked for about a minute or so but the variac got hot enough to start making a smell and I had to stop to keep from burning it up. Save your variac for your amp.

[David Schwab]

You can probably use a router speed control to control a drill motor.

http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/displayitem.taf?Itemnumber=43060