DeArmond 1100 Rewind

[rfriedman]

This is my first experience. I need to make contact with someone who is willing to walk me through the process. I am competent and have a small machine shop. Just don't want to reinvent the wheel. Anybody out there. I have the pickup body out and a few broken ends, so unwinding would be tricky unless I were lucky enough to grab the correct end. Can anybody get me started? Thanks

[belwar]

Ouch. That would be a very nasty pickup to rewind. I have one of them, and just examining the darn thing caused me to break the lead. Honestly the best thing you could do would be to make a new bobbin and re-use the rest of the parts. The originals were machine wound on a Leesona 102. I dont know the turns per layer though as I havent un wound the one I have yet. I'm pretty sure the wire is 44 plain enamel (very hard to find). 44 polysol would be an acceptable replacement wire.

[belwar]

FYI:

http://music-electronics-forum.com/t11925/

[rfriedman]

Thanks for the information

I guess I will move ahead until I can go no further. My next step is to remove what ever is covering the windings. I think it is paper that has been saturated with varnish, such that when I try to lift the wrapping the wire comes with it. I suppose I could use some paint remover as a start. What do you think?

[belwar]

If you do unwind it, would you might sharing with me the turns per layer that you get? It would be a huge help for my research to be able to comare a few. The bobbin looks different than mine. Can you get a close up shot of the bobbin? I'll see if I can give you some advise on how to proceed

[rfriedman]

Images of pickup

I measured the wire at about .00125 so I got 42 AWG
Here are the pictures

[big_teee]

Hello:
Insulated diameter of 42 is .0028.
Heres a copy of the coil estimator, and it gives the size of wire.
Put wire size in at the top it gives diameter at the bottom of the page.
Coil Estimator
Good luck,
Terry

[Joe Gwinn]

When photographing something like a pickup, it's useful if one includes a ruler (preferably steel) in the photo. This automatically gives the scale.

[rfriedman]

Insulation off exposing windings

Paint remover softened the wrapping enough such that I could remove it, not without breaking some sections of wire, so I no longer have a good starting point for the unwind. I plan on removing all traces of the wrapping varnish with a toothbrush and paint remover before I proceed with the manual unwind. Any thoughts before I proceed? Count the number of turns? I am likely to loose count. Weigh the wire after removal? One suggestion was not to attempt an unwind but simply cut through and unwrap the bundle. Here are 2 images of the exposed windings. The pickup is 3 inches long.

[rfriedman]

Update on pickup unwind

Here are the images of the pickup with the wire cut. Need to contemplate the next step. This wire is very easy to break. I guess its time to invent a very delicate winding process. I imagine I should weigh my wire and figure out the length. I suppose I could do the math for how many turns that represents providing the wire is neatly stacked. I guess I really need a friend that can mount this on their machine and do a quick wind for me. Suggestions?

[David King]

Weighing the wire should get you close. Cutting through the wire now makes it impossible to see what the traverse gear ratio was set at on the original winder. That probably isn't too important in the grand scheme of things but it would have been nice to know. Anyone with a spool of 44AWG can do the rewind if you aren't fussy about vintage-correct insulation. Where do you live? That would be a good start.

[rfriedman]

Unwould Dearmond Pickup

I tried to unwind but the wire was too delicate, also it broke in a few places when I was removing the wrapping using paint remover, so I had multiple ends. I am in Lexington MA