Newbie with possible parts sources

[Ruel]

Would it be possible for you to ship to the Philippines? What about minimum orders?

[Possum]

Ben get a clue.....

Those P90 bobbins are injection molded, all the injection molded bobbins, P90s or buckers, NEED TO BE DRILLED for your pole screws to work in. Even the best bucker bobbins you notice the end holes are easy to thread into and the middle ones are tight. Find the right size drill and drill out every pole hole, I do this on every plastic bobbin as a matter of course no matter how good they are or who made them.

[David King]

Even the best bucker bobbins you notice the end holes are easy to thread into and the middle ones are tight.

That's an interesting observation and I don't know enough about injection molding to explain why the holes in the middle would come out smaller than the holes on the end.

So what you're saying is that the allparts bobbins are just fine, no need to start over with them?

[madialex]

Those P90 bobbins are injection molded, all the injection molded bobbins, P90s or buckers, NEED TO BE DRILLED for your pole screws to work in. Even the best bucker bobbins you notice the end holes are easy to thread into and the middle ones are tight.

Hi Possum, I appreciate the observation about the bobbins but I will also say, I never had that trouble with the GJ Bobbins, humbucker or P90 bobbins. The pole screws fit just right, not loose and not tight. I just feel someone out there should get more of a clue than I need about the bobbins. Is it too much to ask for the holes to be right so the end user doesn't have to mod it even further just to be able to use it. To me thats like buying a car and having to finish assembling the engine, it just doesn't make sense, maybe i'm wrong??

[madialex]

Oh yeah I forgot to mention the holes are not even big enough to get the screw started, not even the self taping ones I have. It's just stupid..

[Spence]

Tap the holes with the correct tap for your screwpoles. Watch in amazement as they screw effortlessly into the bobbin. Tell all your friends, have wild boozy bobbin tapping parties and make the World a better place.

[Possum]

sheesh.....

If you expect every part to fit every other part you're expecting way too much. Guitar Jones bobbins and P90 bobbins are made out of junky soft plastic, sure they thread easy, the white ones thread so easy they strip out, not good. The P90 bobbins I got when Alex was there a couple years ago were just way wrong, they had rough textured tops and bottoms and all you could get out of them was mud tones unless you used 40 guage wire or something. They were also some weird pliable plastic, awful things. I have to drill my bobbins out on all the stuff I use and also drill the keepers and baseplates to fit the screws I use, sure its a pain but everything fits after you do it. Otherwise you spend alot of time cursing trying to get screws jammed in there. If you guys had learned from the Lollar book you'd be real happy to have the stuff thats available after making a couple hundred P90 bobbins out of Forbon and tappable plastic cores that have to have the tap run through it four or five times before you get a clean thread. To me all this stuff is just raw materials you have to make work.

[Joe Gwinn]

Those P90 bobbins are injection molded, all the injection molded bobbins, P90s or buckers, NEED TO BE DRILLED for your pole screws to work in. Even the best bucker bobbins you notice the end holes are easy to thread into and the middle ones are tight. Find the right size drill and drill out every pole hole, I do this on every plastic bobbin as a matter of course no matter how good they are or who made them.

Instead of using a drill bit, I'd use a straight reamer cooled with tap water. Reamers will give good control of final size. The cooling is essential to keep the plastic from melting and gumming things up. Even if the plastic doesn't quite melt, it will swell and too much will be removed, yielding an oversize hole upon cooling.

http://www1.mscdirect.com/CGI/NNSRIT...MT4NO=20141368

This above is sized for a 5-40 screw, but reamers are available in far more sizes than drills, so one can find a size that will allow one to drive a machine screw into the plastic without tapping the hole, so the tension will keep the screw from walking in or out. Reaming is also far faster than hand tapping. The above reamer is intended to be used in a drill press.

Note that reamers are not good for making holes, they are only good for slightly enlarging existing holes (and making the hole rounder and straighter and more accurate in size than any drill bit can).

[madialex]

SHEEESH, sorry, didn't mean to get Spence and possum in a frenzy here, just made a simple statement.

I like the reamer idea I will try that.

I guess I should just keep my trap closed from now on, Damn....

[Spence]

Well I for one didn't realize Possum's been getting such shitty materials to work with. No way would I put up with that shoddy crap. I put up with crap, but not to that extent.

I agree with him that you nearly always have to treat these parts as raw materials because they're rarely right fresh out of the box.

BTW, if your baseplates have a clearance hole for the screw rather than a tapped hole, you're going to need some sort of screw thread in the bobbin. Simple. How you cut it is up to you but using a tap is the coventional method. If the screw fit is loose just rub some wax over the thread.

As regards using a reamer in a drill press...overkill.

There's not much I haven't had to put right with pickup parts and I've made plenty of my own parts along the road. One thing I have learned is that fanciful ways of fixing thingis a stupid waste of time and resource which often ends in spectacular faliure.

[NightWinder]

not to mention putting the fucking screws uncentered from force, and looking like shit when they are finished.

[David King]

And why wouldn't you just tap the holes 5-40 with a spiral point gun tap and be done with it? I do all my tapping with a reversible battery powered drill. It goes very fast once you learn to start the tap perpendicular. If you can't handle that you'll have to spend $300 and get a little tapmatic tapping head that you mount to your drill press but I can't imagine anyone who winds pickups would be that uncoordinated

[NightWinder]

And why wouldn't you just tap the holes 5-40 with a spiral point gun tap and be done with it? I do all my tapping with a reversible battery powered drill. It goes very fast once you learn to start the tap perpendicular. If you can't handle that you'll have to spend $300 and get a little tapmatic tapping head that you mount to your drill press but I can't imagine anyone who winds pickups would be that uncoordinated

WTF? I tap my holes. I was stating from the point of some weekend warrior trying to make shit happen with shitty parts. And that part of shitty, unaligned holes was left out. Tapmatic tapping head is a waste of cash.
There are uncoordinated hobbiest. There all over right here in this forum, learning.

[David King]

Nightwinder I'm sorry, I didn't realize that the holes are also off center. That tells me it's time for someone to make a new mold and get this started off on the right foot. I also apologize to all the newbies who are struggling to figure all this out so that they can one day compete with the rest of you.

[NightWinder]

Nightwinder I'm sorry, I didn't realize that the holes are also off center. That tells me it's time for someone to make a new mold and get this started off on the right foot. I also apologize to all the newbies who are struggling to figure all this out so that they can one day compete with the rest of you.

Some are offcenter too. Maybe I did'nt clarifiy myself. I was simply stating that the untapped hole doesnt take the screw, don't force it, you will most likely put it in uncentered, therefor resulting in a nasty product. I was just stating that in terms that it was'nt mentioned, and from a beginers standpoint this is one of the reasons why you would want to tap first. Funny, little things like this make a big difference when you are presenting your products. Funnyier, the naked eye can quickly pick this up too, and your product can quickly be thought of as second rate, at best.