Low DC Resistance and miles of wasted wire

[Builder7]

I need to vent
I am new to winding. I have made about a dozen attempts and only 2 have have up with a reasonable DC resistance the rest keep coming up between 3.8 and 4.3. I am trying Tele neck and tele bridge pickups. 43 wire from Stew mac on the necks and 42 elektrisola on the bridge. I started with spray lacquer for the magnet poles after many attempts and reading on this forum I added Kapton tape over the lacquer, making sure no metal was visible. 8100 turns later I hit 4.3 again. I am assuming it is a short.
How do you keep the insulation on the wire?
Do I need to lube the edge of the spool?
Why after 8000 turns how do I end up with a short within a 500 ohm range again and again?
Is winding really that delicate?

I have built and/or refurbished over 30 guitar amps. I have build about 15 guitars. How hard can it be to get wire around a spool?

[eschertron]

Have you disassembled any of these pickups to do a failure analysis? What kind of tension do you wind with?

[mozz]

Also check for burrs, on the eyelets and fiber. Check the guides too(wire stops).

[big_teee]

Probably damaging the wire before it gets on the bobbin.
Check the wire guide, that you break it over or under, for roughness.
You may have bad wire?
Lots of possibilities?
Pictures should help.
T

[Builder7]

Thanks for the replies, frustration is setting in and it helps.
Tension
I couldn't tell you if it is really tight or not. I don't have enough experience to know the difference.
I am going straight from the spool to my fingers to the the bobbin. No wire guide. Is that a problem?

Eyelets
I am catching on the eyelets from time to time. How do you get to the bottom of the bobbin without catching on the eyelets? I'm using bottom flats from stew Mac and the eyelets stick up. Can I cover them with something?

Bobbins
I sanded and partially polished the edge of the bobbins with a dremel. Early on I was catching wire on the edges.

Bad wire
I have never had a good pickup from the 42awg poly. I have purchased and different spool of 42 PE to try that. I haven't opened it up yet.

I have learned that soldering/de-soldering a flat 6 plus times will pop out the eyelets.
This all looks so simple in the videos

[Builder7]

Don't laugh too hard. I started with an inexpensive hand winder. I couldn't justify spending a few hundred for something until I knew more about the hobby.

[big_teee]

Sounds like a possible eyelet problem.
The eyelets go in from the bottom side of the flatwork.
The eyelets are staked from the top, then ground smooth.
Then file or sand the edges of the flatwork.
They make stake tools for this, I use a common center punch to stake the eyelets.
On the bottom flatwork, there should be no metal or edges sticking up from the top side.
If you can wind without guides, that is great, and that eliminates metal edges to go over.
With that said, I recommend wire guides with adjustable stops.
It makes winding and tensioning much easier.
T

[Builder7]

Thanks for the eyelet explanation. I realized from your description that I actualy built one of my neck pickups with the bottom flat upside down. Duh. I sanded, smoothed and polished the bobbins and made two more attempts. I got 5.0 and 5.1. I think I need to give up. This thin wire is beyond the capabilities of my fat fingers. The failure rate is too frustrating. With guitars and wood I can chip, gouge, and crack a piece of wood and still recover with a great guitar. This is too unforgiving. Just so you know I am not a complete loser here is a link to one of my basses on consignment at the Chicago music exchange. It is not my best build work but it is the best photography.

https://www.chicagomusicexchange.com...-4-string-bass


I am frustrated and embarrassed at my complete failure in the endeavor.
Maybe I'll try again sometime. Are there any good videos showing it being done well?
Does anyone else have massively high failure rates at winding?

[kayakerca]

Maybe I'll try again sometime. Are there any good videos showing it being done well?

https://youtu.be/jN8faik-B3o?t=1m37s

[Builder7]

How about a free custom guitar to anyone that can teach me how to do this? Here are two of my latest to choose from.

[big_teee]

If you want someone to take a look at your build, if you're in the United States, you could send one of your pickups to me.
I can take it a part and look it over, maybe figure out what is going on.

As far as your guitars, they look beautiful, you better hang on to them.

Mod
T

[Lollar Jason]

put a length of masking tape over the edge of the pickup the eyelets are on- you dont have to completely cover the eyelets just the leading edge and make the tape a little longer than the flatwork and make sure its stuck down good onto your faceplate. On rare occasion you can get a spool of wire where the insulation was applied improperly so it has voids. Also check for a very small shard of metal sticking to the side of one of the magnets where it eventually cuts into the coil- thats often the problem when you wind a coil over and over and it shorts every time

[danman]

Have you tried winding a single humbucker bobbin to check it for proper DC resistance? That may help you to determine if it is your technique with the single coil or just bad wire perhaps.

[the great waldo]

How about a free custom guitar to anyone that can teach me how to do this? Here are two of my latest to choose from.

[ATTACH=CONFIG]42082[/ATTACH]
[ATTACH=CONFIG]42083[/ATTACH]

This may sound daft, are you measuring the resistance on the end pole pieces and the eyelets ? and if so are you getting a resistance reading ? if so your insulation is not right. I had loads of problems using lacquer for insulation. I tend to tape the two e polepieces for extra insulation. Filing the bobbin edges will stop the wire catching but I don't think that's your problem.

Cheers
Andrew ps. nice guitars

[TJSilljer]

Hey Guys, also new to the forum but have come here a lot for info. Ive succesfully wound and sold quite a few pickups however this latest one is really bumming me out. I have the same problem as the OP above.

Im trying to wind a tele bridge for a client and I went with mojo tone flatwork and poles, using Shatten 43awg poly wire and winding to about 8k DCR *8000 turns*. My first wind I ended up with 4.4dcr, fail. Second attempt was even weirder, went slightly over at about 8600 turns and ended up with 8.5 dcr obviously hot off my fingers I let it sit for a while, even put it in a guitar to test it and it was just about perfect, wanted to unwind it just slightly. Took it out and all of a sudden without unwinding any it metered at 6.5dcr.

At this point I cut it all apart and rewound at 8300 turns expecting somewhere around 8.2 hoping to settle around 8k. Ended up at 5.7dcr.

All of my flatwork and magnets are properly laquered, sanded edges and im 100% certain it wasnt snagging or anything of that sort. Could this be a bad batch of wire? What would make a coil come out super low DCR or randomly drop so greatly?