My coilwinders

[ake]

My coilwinders

[ken]

Do you have 'close up' photos of your winders? How does the one in the center work?

Ken

[ake]

I have 2 winders picture in the middle and right are the same winder Ake

[Possum]

what is the winder on the right side? What manufacturer?

[ake]

Micafil

[ken]

I'm trying to design a winder somewhat like Wolfe's, but I'm having trouble with the wire tensioning. I'm working on a auto tensioner that will keep the same tension on the wire no matter how full the coil bobbin or the main spool is.

Ken

[Rob S]

I'm trying to design a winder somewhat like Wolfe's, but I'm having trouble with the wire tensioning. I'm working on a auto tensioner that will keep the same tension on the wire no matter how full the coil bobbin or the main spool is.

Ken

Why, Ken?

Is it just me or did the goal posts move?

What happened to the hand-wound-with-passion ala Lindy Fralin boutique pickups that used to be talked about? It may be a doddle copying a pickup style with a computer or having a remote servo filling the spool but this takes the shine off it all for me.

This isn't personal Ken, the whole shove in the forum is towards replication, production speed and automation but aren't the stock pickups made this way?

Wind one at a time and get your hands dirty is my two pennyworth,

Rob.

[WolfeMacleod]

Rob, I still do a lot of hand-winding on my winder. It's good to have something that's somewhat advanced so you know how they operate and what they're capable of doing.
While I still believe hand-winding is generally better, I've also learned that when it comes to machine winding, it's all in how you program the machine.

[ken]

I love hand winding pickups, but I also love a good challenge too.

I just wanted to say I did it... I was a computer 'hacker' back when you programmed IBM XT's with 'push'es and 'pop's. It is relatively easy to write the program to run the winder, but the computer/machine electrical interface is more of a challenge. Used early Pentiums running Win98 are cheaper than dirt too, old computers make great controllers.

Besides, unfortunately I have some work related hand damage... some days I can't even cut Forbon much less hold the wire. I have to face that someday I may not be able to wind at all. :(

Ken

[soundmasterg]

I can attest that Wolfe's machine winder winds some great pickups as I have a couple that Wolfe did with that, and they sound just as good if not better than the ones he did with his previous drill press winder, or the sewing machine one before that. I agree with Wolfe...its in how you program the machine. Plus his machine will allow you to hand wind and hand tension too if that is what you want. I wouldn't mind one myself if I ever actually started winding pickups.

Greg

[Rob S]

I'm sitting here humbly...

I too have an interest in automating a machine with a computer recording the winding pattern synched to the rotation and able to play back the pattern with a servo or stepper motor.

No great ideas on tensioning at speed though.

In mitigation I can only say that I've been too busy in this heat and got on my high horse after a few stress relief beers.

It took a fishing trip to get me out of that fettle (I put them all back).

Rob.

We haven't seen this sort of heat here before:help:

[ken]

It's cool... I was just wondering what it would take to do it, that's all.

I do know that Model Railroader magazine did a series of articles on computer controlling a train layout, complete with speed and position control. They included basic logic/wiring diagrams for the computer interface boards, instructions on how to make your own boards, and BASIC program snippets for the different instructions. Best of all, the layout they used had the same tech we use in winders, either IR LED pickups or magnets and reed switches! They used a Commodore 64 then, but I do remember seeing interface/tech articles for the IBM XT too.

The traverse mech could possibly be a CD player transport head drive or a printer's head drive? Both use stepper motors and are cheap.

I was fishing too last week, the bottle bass was really biting... so was the mosquitoes. I knew it was time to go in when the mosquitoes that bit me couldn't fly straight anymore.

The definition of optimism...(no lie)

I bought a snowmobile today, and I live in WI (just under Canada). Last winter we only got to ride two weeks out of the whole year. Otherwise, not enough snow.

Ken

[David Schwab]

Here's a website with DIY CNC plans and parts.

http://www.crankorgan.com/index.html

Could be an interesting way to make a computer controlled winder!

I wouldn't mind making a CNC router either...

[Rob S]

There are a lot of interface boards for the parallel port on ebay or this type of kit:

http://www.piclist.com/techref/io/stepper/linistep/index.htm

My own experience with stepper motors was disappointing - I was driving them with mosfets from an i/o port on a BBC micro but torque and speed were poor no matter what.

The carriage motor in printers and the CD head drive are often servo motors with positional sensors (either a linear tape or those wheel things you get in computer mice) and might be a better way to go. The motor could just drive a screw shaft with a small carriage for the wire guide or be a r/c type servo I've seen somewhere (Dave Stephens?).

The recording of the pattern could be steered from an analogue joystick(through an A/D converter) or maybe record the pulse width from the remote controller.

A tied-in thought I had, since a computer is involved was to have a friction driven roller (wire friction) with an opto on it which would measure wire length though I don't know how useful that would be:confused: .

Planned another fishing trip for saturday in the North sea for cod and mackerel, there's a few left and no mosquitoes over here (yet!).

Rob.

[David Schwab]

I saw something on the internet about making a winder from an old floppy disc drive...

[Rob S]

I saw something on the internet about making a winder from an old floppy disc drive...

I've seen this too but when I looked for it just then I fell into the internet-I'll-not-get anything-done-at-this-rate trap...

look

http://www.makezine.com/blog/archive/2006/04/

http://epierce.blog.usf.edu/feeds/author/philliptorrone

That's why I fish :fishing:

[SK66]

when it comes to machine winding, it's all in how you program the machine.
And the truth is, there are already a million pickups out there suitable for every player.... Duncan/Dimarzio et all. The problem is there are too many choices....

[David Schwab]

And the truth is, there are already a million pickups out there suitable for every player.... Duncan/Dimarzio et all. The problem is there are too many choices....

Exactly... as long as they are variations on a theme, i.e., Fender or Gibson pickups, how much can you do in those confines?

Then there's the issue that if you do something really different, most guitar players aren't interested because it's not the sound they grew up with on their favorite classic rock records.

For example, how many guitar players want a very hi-fi transparent sounding pickup? Not many. Maybe jazz players. But this is the kind of thing many bass players look for.

It also goes back to the guitar makers. Before there was a market for replacement pickups, you got what ever pickup came with your guitar. With the exception of DeArmond, most pickups were OEM for that maker's guitars. Some makers like Guild and Gretch used a few different brands of pickups. DiMarzio got started because they offered something different... hot humbuckers. Schecter did the hot tapped single coils. Duncan got started doing custom rewinds. EMG found their market with "active" pickups. Lace did something different.

So that's where's it's at I guess... either do something radical, and hope it catches on, or offer some kind of added value... people like the idea of boutique makers, even if their products aren't so radically different from something Duncan might offer. But hand wound pickups do have a certain tone that seems to be hard to get with mass produced pickups...

[ken]

I do notice that bass players aren't as uptight about their pickups as guitarists are, they are more 'tone oriented' and don't worry so much about construction
details just so they sound good. The problem for me is that I want to do more 'way out' designs too, but these don't seem to sell too well. So, I make a few special pickups for myself, and the customers get the more usual designs. I have a couple of my customers who will experiment a bit tonally, and they will ask me if I have any 'weirdo' pickups for them.

Ken