poly-coated wire connection?

[Dolmetscher007]

About to wind my first pickup: Strat Style. Alnico 5 poles, 42 AWG poly-coated wire, All Stewmac stuff.

1. If 42-43 AWG is coated, either poly or enamel,when you first tie it to the brass eyelet of a bobbin, how does the poly-coated wire make an electical connection? Does the heat of the solder when you solder all the wires to the eyelets etc melt the poly/enamel and just connects that way, or does one need to carefully strip 42 AWG wire?
2. If the thin wire does snap while I'm winding the pickup... what do I do? Will the wire just scatter off the bobbin and end up like a birds nest in my hand, or can one recover? Do you need to unwind, and re-wind to make sure the tension stays at lest remotely the same? And again... if the wire snaps, do you have to strip the wire to tie it back on to the spool and continue? How else will it make a connectioin to itself? Do you solder the tiny connection?
3. Is it advisable to take a resistance reading while the bobbin is still on the winder, or do you pretty much have to take it off, take a reading, and then reattach it if you are not where you wanted to be yet?

These probably all seem like such obvious question to you guys, but to me, none of the online videos that I've seen address these three topics.

Thanks guys!

[big_teee]

Welcome to the B/H forum.
No question is too basic here.
Poly wire is an excellent choice and what you want to use to get started.
Poly does not have to be stripped to solder.
Plain Enamel, and Heavy Formvar wire, both do need some stripping. (Pulling through folded fine sandpaper, works well)
If you are using a winder with a turns counter, you can just wind the coil and check DCR after winding.
Or check it before cutting the wire at the end.
For a first pickup, I would splice the wire if you break it.
Wire will not birdnest if it breaks.
The wire will stay where you put it.
What else?
Anyone else have anything to add please do!
Terry

[big_teee]

I haven't watched it in a while, but seems like this was a good vid for Strat Single coils.

[Mark Hammer]

Having made far too many pickups where a splice was required, I would say it is better to just wind until you have no more room on the bobbin/coil, measure, and then remove as many windings as it takes to get to your desired DC resistance. One splice is fine, I suppose, but you really don't want more than that, since splices tend to inflate the coil by taking up more space. So it is better to overshoot and back up, bit by bit, if you want to arrive at a particular DC resistance.

[Dolmetscher007]

Poly does not have to be stripped to solder.

So the heat from the solder just melts through the super thin poly coating?

**********************************

If you are using a winder with a turns counter, you can just wind the coil and check DCR after winding.
Or check it before cutting the wire at the end.

I bought the StewMac Pickup Kit for Stra So I plan on making:

• Single Coil
• 42 awg poly wire
• Alnico 5 (don't know the length of the pole pieces; StewMac's desc. doesn't say)
• 8,000 turns
• 65 tpl (as best as I can attempt anyway)

I had planned on measuring the resistance after 8,000 turns. I am not sure what it is 'supposed' to be though.

**********************************

For a first pickup, I would splice the wire if you break it.

As opposed to what?

[big_teee]

As opposed to cutting it all off and starting over.
Yes, the heat will melt the poly coating.
Not sure how Stewmac does the eyelet, but you want the smooth side to the inside, and the solder side on the bottom.
8000 turns should be in the 5800-6200 ohms DCR.
Depends on how tight, and how much you scatter wind.
What winder do you have?

[big_teee]

One thing not mentioned is protecting the magnets, on a single coil pickup.
In the old days bobbins were dipped twice in lacquer, and were allowed to drip dry.
Some guys still do that.
The rest of us tape the magnet bobbin core.
You can use paper masking tape, mylar tape, waxed floral tape.
The important thing is to protect the magnet wire from shorting out on the magnets.
If not protected, they will short out.

[Dolmetscher007]

What winder do you have?

I made it myself.

It has a 10,000 rpm geared motor
A speed controller that goes from 0 - 10,000
Can spin CW and/or Counter-CW
A guide bar with shaft collars that I can "tune" and set to keep the wire wrapping true on the bobbin
A counter display that counts up to 99,999. (Boy what a pickup that would be lol!)

[Joe Gwinn]

So the heat from the solder just melts through the super thin poly coating?

If the poly is designed to be stripped by soldering, like soldereze, yes. Temperature is critical. Most need 750 F to strip the poly. You want the iron hot enough that the wire solders instantly, with a puff of smoke.

[big_teee]

Any luck winding that first pickup yet?

Here's typical winding data for a CBS type Single coil.
Use either PE, or Single poly.

[Reader]

---Here's typical winding data for a CBS type Single coil.- - -

big_teee,
I'm having trouble understanding some of the data in the chart. Specifically, I don't get how the "max layers" and "max winds" for the loose scatter and tight scatter can be less than the "layers" and "winds." Is that just a typo or is there some pickup winder's convention that I don't understand yet?
Thanks,
Bill

[big_teee]

Do you see how the loose scatter, and tight scatter are in red?
It is red because those values will not fit on the bobbin.
So you have to move up to the black text, for it to fit on the bobbin.
I hand wind, and usually wind around 90-91%.
So if you take the next to the right collumn?
148×53.6=7932.8
Which is about right.

This is just a estimating guide to calculate general information before winding.

Heres a Humbucker bobbin.
5000 turns would get you close.

[Reader]

Okay. Now that I know red means won't fit oh, I get it. Given that I guess the winds data in the table should be read to in the first two columns. Correct?

[big_teee]

Okay. Now that I know red means won't fit oh, I get it. Given that I guess the winds data in the table should be read to in the first two columns. Correct?

I just printed what I had on the screen.
If you want to use scatter, you would need to adjust the table for less DCR ohms.
Here's the basic estimator that you can vary the input, and play with.
It's not what I use, but you can get a lot of variables with it.
http://www.jdguitarworks.com/coil/coil.html

[Dolmetscher007]

Any luck winding that first pickup yet?

Here's typical winding data for a CBS type Single coil.
Use either PE, or Single poly.


[ATTACH=CONFIG]51026[/ATTACH]

Thanks for checking in Terry!

I have not yet would the pickup. I have built my pickup winder's housing, and I have mounted the motor and all that jazz. But I have yet to solder it all together. I have never touched a soldering iron in my life, so I think I am stalling by asking theroetical questions to keep from just f*****g getting after it! There are just SO many questions, and it seems like each step leads me down another rabbit hole.

For example, to wire up my pickup winder, I simply need to...

1. Connect a three-way DPDT switch to a 10,000 rpm 12 V DC electric gear motor
2. Connect the switch to the two terminals of a 12 v power supply
3. Connect a PWM adjustable driver Speed controller that has a little potentiometer knob

That's it!!!

I also have a little counter that is just an LCD display attached to a "wand" that has a magnetic sensor at it's end. The motor is mounted behind it, so that whenever the pickup makes one full revolution, a magnet on the bobbin holder will trigger it to count: 1, 2, 3... etc. But that whole counter thing is battery powered. So I don't even have to worry about wiring it all in with the motor, speed controller, and power supply.

So I go to Home Depot to buy some wire, some wire strippers, and some heat shrink tubes, mostly to cover up my solders, which I am anticipating not being too pretty. But there are a ton of choices for wire. I ended up buy 12 gague solid wire. But I do not know if that was the right thing to get. I don't know why wire comes in solid and in stranded form. I also do not know if 12 volts is "a lot" and requires this thicker 12 gague wire, or if I could have gone with 14 or 16. I went heavier, because... well... it felt right. Ha ha ha!!! But my budget is so tight, I always want to make sure it is the right thing before I open it, because I will want to take it back it is doesd turn out to be wrong. And the sage continues.

Oh man... if only I had more cash to put into just "going for it!" But again... thanks for checking in! I appreciate it Bud.

Michael