How fast can a humbucker bobbin be wound?

[belwar]

last time I was at seymour duncans I looked close at the tensioners. I noticed that a few of the tanac winders were using tanac tensioners WITH the spring thingy (thats a technical term), BUT they were also using felt. Every winder there was using felt that I noticed - mostly in large banana clips.

[JGundry]

Geo Stevens has made felt tensioning clips for eons. I just order 4 for the crazy price of $25.00 each. I actually think for smaller gauge magnet wire felt clamping as the sole tensioning method has been pretty standard over the years. Old Geo Stevens catalogs show felt tensioning for the smaller machines that go down to wire 42 AWG in size and below. I have seen 4 different vintage Gibson winders and all of those used felt tensioning as well. The alligator clip method works great also. I put a little bit of shrink tubing over the teeth on the clip so there is no risk of them digging into the wire. It's super simple and if you get the right sized clip the tension is perfect for 42 AWG. You can even tweak it a bit with different kinds of felt.

As far as winding speed goes I think most keep it below 2000 RPM. I know Gibson used one machine (not the Leesona 102) whose slowest speed was 5000 RPM according to the manual. But this same machine came with a variac which I think would allow for speeds below 5000 RPM. I will have to wait until I get mine running before I know for sure.

[Viktor Johanson]

Geo Stevens has made felt tensioning clips for eons. I just order 4 for the crazy price of $25.00 each. I actually think for smaller gauge magnet wire felt clamping as the sole tensioning method has been pretty standard over the years. Old Geo Stevens catalogs show felt tensioning for the smaller machines that go down to wire 42 AWG in size and below. I have seen 4 different vintage Gibson winders and all of those used felt tensioning as well. The alligator clip method works great also. I put a little bit of shrink tubing over the teeth on the clip so there is no risk of them digging into the wire. It's super simple and if you get the right sized clip the tension is perfect for 42 AWG. You can even tweak it a bit with different kinds of felt.

As far as winding speed goes I think most keep it below 2000 RPM. I know Gibson used one machine (not the Leesona 102) whose slowest speed was 5000 RPM according to the manual. But this same machine came with a variac which I think would allow for speeds below 5000 RPM. I will have to wait until I get mine running before I know for sure.

Thank you! Which specific Geo Stevens item did you order?

[JGundry]

Thank you! Which specific Geo Stevens item did you order?

What I think I ordered is the little felt clip that is at the top of the first dereeler on this page. http://www.geostevens.com/products/TensionDevices.asp

The little clip is $25.00. Geo Stevens is really pricey. I have a custom made winder on order with them that costs more than what I paid for my other 3 vintage winders combined. But they have what I want so why not.

[David Schwab]

What I think I ordered is the little felt clip that is at the top of the first dereeler on this page. http://www.geostevens.com/products/TensionDevices.asp

It looks like a little plastic clothes pin. Is that how it works?

That dereeler looks nice too.

[JGundry]

Yes. It's metal I think. But really a larger alligator clip with felt in it works amazingly well.

[chevalij]

I think I'm in the 1500 range. I've generally found that the faster you go, the more tension you have to apply or the coil gets sloppy. More tension, more stretch etc. Even tension at 1500 gives me nice coils...

[Jabs]

I use a loom, 12 bobbins stacked. 1000rpm x 12 = 12,000rpm