winder issues-- skills, advice in set up?

[vortiger]

winder issues

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Hi All,
I bought the following:
http://cgi.ebay.com/BUILD-YOUR-OWN-P...QQcmdZViewItem



THen I bought some wire from Guitar Parts, bought some old pickups, ripped them down to the bobbins, and set to work, following the instructions in Bob's abovesited book. (I should state that Bob, who owns the plans sited above, has been great, but I thought I'd also throw this out there.)

A frustrating first day. I set up the winder as per instructions, threaded the wire and set up a glorified toilet paper roll for the wire spindle.

I had the heads of the wire roll facing the winder, as per diagram, but when I spin, the wire keeps jumping the bobbin altogether and threds round the double-sided tape and even the wheel behind it.

I have experimented with moving the thread spindle far and away, hoping the angle would sove the problem, but it still jumps and the wire breaks quick. Any suggestions?

PS. I live in LA and would be willing to drive over to someone's house if anyone is local and wants to show me the spinning ropes!

[chevalij]

Are you guiding the wire by hand? From the way you are describing it, it sounds like you are just letting it go on its own.

[David Schwab]

Here's a picture of the Schatten winder from Stew-Mac's web site.

You can see the person hand guiding the wire, and the wire guides.

You also supply tension this way, by pinching the wire between your fingers.

[vortiger]

by hand

I was, not not like this. I'll try it.

I think the foot pedeal has too much speed. May be it;s something I need to get used to.

More advice always welcome.

[Spence]

I assume you're referring to this book. You should contact him directly for aftersales issues.

[SkinnyWire]

I was, not not like this. I'll try it.

I think the foot pedeal has too much speed. May be it;s something I need to get used to.

More advice always welcome.

In Jason's book, he recommends a screw through the foot pedal to limit travel/speed. You can fine tune it to taste. Or, you could switch to a hand control of some sort.

[kevinT]

here is a video off of Seymour's site that shows him handwinding a pickup in his custom shop. It starts about mid-way through the video.

http://www.seymourduncan.com/artists...e_custom_shop/

[Joe Gwinn]

here is a video off of Seymour's site that shows him handwinding a pickup in his custom shop. It starts about mid-way through the video.

http://www.seymourduncan.com/artists...e_custom_shop/

Look at the equipment on the shelf behind all those wild and woolly musicians.

[Possum]

me and Duncky....

Cool, those are the same winders I use though he's made a much better tailstock than they make, its an Adams Maxwell winder, built like a tank and last forever , unfortunately the company service sucks and no one speaks english :-) I have two of 'em....

[DoctorX]

>>check the other video out<<

Here is the other video on Seymour Duncan's site from stratmaster.com.

there are more scenes of the pickup making process that you should see.

http://www.seymourduncan.com/artists...rat_masters_t/

I didn't try to save the file directly from Seymour's website, but I did copy it from the Temporary Internet Files folder on my PC to a separate folder. It runs in a Quick Time window (free download from Apple).

DoctorX

[kevinT]

man....that coil form press and jig setup is the shit....I wish i had one

[Dr. Guitar]

Tension

Thanks for the links to the Seymour videos. I noticed a couple things I have been doing wrong.

I think I have a secondary question for this thread to address. How much tension? I bought on of the Schatten winders, and have noticed that I can make the motor slow down, by pinching the wire more. What would be a good rule of thumb on this? Do I make sure not to slow the motor, take it just to that point, or should I be dragging it a little bit?

[Dave Kerr]

In one of those videos Seymour said he knew he was applying too much tension when the wire felt hot

[David Schwab]

I bought one of the Schatten winders, and have noticed that I can make the motor slow down, by pinching the wire more. What would be a good rule of thumb on this? Do I make sure not to slow the motor, take it just to that point, or should I be dragging it a little bit?

I might be the only person here with one of those winders...

Mostly you want to drag on the wire. You can actually make the motor stop if you pinch hard enough! I was trying to wind some 30 AWG last week, and the motor is so under powered that it couldn't get started! When eventually it did start, I couldn't get decent tension on the wind.

That winder works fine for more normal gauge wire, but it is easy to slow it down. Lately I have been winding at full speed and letting it slow down just a tad. Even then the coils are not as tight as they could be. On the positive side, it's very hard to break your wire while winding.

So I've reached the limitation of that winder. No doubt a stronger motor would help, but I'm about to start on a new winder. I've wound a bunch of good pickups with it, and it paid for itself, but I'm outgrowing the thing.

[David Schwab]

I didn't try to save the file directly from Seymour's website, but I did copy it from the Temporary Internet Files folder on my PC to a separate folder. It runs in a Quick Time window (free download from Apple).

When the entire movie loads, you can save it from the quicktime window in the browser by clicking on the arrow in the right corner and choosing "save as source".

I'm on a Mac, but it works the same way on Windows.

It's a cool little movie. I didn't realize Seymour was that good on guitar.