Pickup winder and other stuff

[Marco78]

Hi boys, I would learn to wrap my own pickups.

On e-bay there are many pickup winder

1. THE THOMAS PICKUP WINDER | eBay

2. SideWinder Guitar Pickup Winder - Roll Your Own | eBay

3. SCHATTEN STYLE PICKUP WINDER: THOMAS DESIGN M1 | eBay

4. Guitar Pickup Winder - Pickup Winding Machine - Adams Pickup Winder Model A2 | eBay

What is the best? the price is about the same for all the winder machine.

Thanks in advance

[David King]

Well they are all more or less identical in design. I haven't used any of them but I think I'd like the Sidewinder thanks to the foot control and the universal voltage power supply. You could build any of them for 25-50 euros in parts.

[Marco78]

You could build any of them for 25-50 euros in parts.

What???????????

Is there a guide with all part that I would be buy?

[jason lollar]

those all look like they are likely to be the same design. Having tried them and watched other people use them with my winder being used at the same time herees what everyone complained about. The machine is a bit slow to begin with- in my opinion WAY too slow because I am use to winding faster but the real problem is when you put tension on the wire it runs even slower. The machines need a bigger motor that runs faster. out of three they had at robetro venn only two worked, one had a bad speed control but it wasnt warranteed for some reason.
They would be ok if you only wind one pickup every week or month

[Marco78]

those all look like they are likely to be the same design. Having tried them and watched other people use them with my winder being used at the same time herees what everyone complained about. The machine is a bit slow to begin with- in my opinion WAY too slow because I am use to winding faster but the real problem is when you put tension on the wire it runs even slower. The machines need a bigger motor that runs faster. out of three they had at robetro venn only two worked, one had a bad speed control but it wasnt warranteed for some reason.
They would be ok if you only wind one pickup every week or month

Thanks Jason for your reply.

Do you know other pickups winder with same dimension and prices? Or do you have a project for a better winder machine? For me winding pickups is (at least for now) only a hobby, but I don't know if is became a "work" between years...
I wind pickups in my home and I have no space for a big and professional wind machine.

[kayakerca]

Thanks Jason for your reply.

Do you know other pickups winder with same dimension and prices? Or do you have a project for a better winder machine? For me winding pickups is (at least for now) only a hobby, but I don't know if is became a "work" between years...
I wind pickups in my home and I have no space for a big and professional wind machine.

Have you thought about building your own winder?

Pickup Winding Book

[Marco78]

Have you thought about building your own winder?

Pickup Winding Book

Too expensive...

[kayakerca]

Too expensive...

You're right, $60 seems like a lot for a 70 page book. But, it's worth every penny and a lot more to my mind. Not only is it a details plan to building a winder that has been tested, the book covers pretty everything you need to know about winding pickup, down to the dimensions of bobbins and much much more. You sell 2 sets of strat pickups to some buddies and you've more than covered the cost. Anyway, that's my opinion on the cost of that book.

[Marco78]

You're right, $60 seems like a lot for a 70 page book. But, it's worth every penny and a lot more to my mind. Not only is it a details plan to building a winder that has been tested, the book covers pretty everything you need to know about winding pickup, down to the dimensions of bobbins and much much more. You sell 2 sets of strat pickups to some buddies and you've more than covered the cost. Anyway, that's my opinion on the cost of that book.

What is the total price to buy the components that there are in the book? are they component that I can buy in "normal" store? What are the tools that need to?

Thanks

[kayakerca]

What is the total price to buy the components that there are in the book? are they component that I can buy in "normal" store? What are the tools that need to?

Thanks

You could probably get away with ~ $100 (plus the cost of a counter if you add one) for the winder in Jason Lollar's book and probably half that if you want to build one without a traverser (like the ones in your first post but without a counter). That's assuming you had the minimum required tools and access to some of the more difficult parts to source than your local Home Depot has to offer (e.g. nylon spacers, shaft collars). The book was probably initially written when there were still "real" hardware stores around that carried all kinds of cool stuff for old school do-it-yourselfers. I am still waiting for one more part to have every thing I need to finish. As far as tools go, the regular wrenches, screw drivers and allen keys are needed. But everyone has those. Definitely a drill and an assortment of bits (a drill press is nice for drilling the collar stops but not necessary). You need a 6-32 tap for the mounting baseplate to a shaft collar. A table saw is nice, and a scroll saw is nice, a table top sander is nice, and a circle cutter is nice as well, but none of these things are necessary, they just make things more accurate and easier. I used a mandrel rather than the shaft and bearing option from the book as it was under $20 (cheap a quality as it may be). Parts and materials are not too extensive. You need a sewing machine motor (you can buy and old sewing machine for max of $20). An oscillating fan if you are adding the traverser ($5 - $10 used). some 3/4" plywood, some 1/4" MDF, some 1/4" acrylic (better base plate but not necessary), some 1/4" Delrin for the CAM (very expensive stuff), a piece of 1/4" or 3/16" steel rod, some shaft collars. Building the base winder without the traverser is real easy and real cheap. If you want to do it on the real cheap, could use a variable speed drill as your winder. All you need to know to do that you can find of the StewMac website. However, the book has a lot more to offer than just how to build the winder.

[David King]

Get an old sewing machine!

MArco you need to start at the beginning I think. In the beginning all we had was junk sewing machines to make into winders. Everybody started with a sewing machine winder because sewing machines were everywhere and free or very cheap. Of all these designs not one of them is going to work as well as my sewing machine winder, I guarantee it. There are lots of photos of these machines on this site if you use the search function. Many of us have dreamed of building a better winder but in fact haven't bothered because sewing machines make very solid and fast winders.
Here's an early shot of my winder and how it looks today after a few additions and refinements over the years. I spent less on the winder and counter, sensor, 5 sets of backplates than I spent on one spool of wire in the foreground. I know this will sound rude but if you can't figure out how to turn a bobbin to wind wire around it I'm not sure you have the aptitude to be a pickup maker. I know for a fact that if you don't have money to turn a sewing machine into a winder you cannot afford to wind pickups. Yes you can buy 200gr spools of wire cheap but you will waste that much wire in your first hour of winding.

[Marco78]

Hi David, I am not able to modify a sewing machine to wind my pickups.

Does the machine in the Lollar book allows to wind CL and CCL?

[kayakerca]

Hi David, I am not able to modify a sewing machine to wind my pickups.

Does the machine in the Lollar book allows to wind CL and CCL?

If you plan to follow the winder model in Jason Lollar's book, you will need a sewing machine and you will need to "modify" it as you have to disassemble it to get the motor, pulleys, etc. You have two choices as I see it for C vs CCW on the Lollar style winder. First, you wind everything the same way and reverse the the wiring (ground on the inside vs. ground on the outside). Second, you mount the bobbin with the other service to the baseplate. This would be the same for David King's winder above.

[Marco78]

If you plan to follow the winder model in Jason Lollar's book, you will need a sewing machine and you will need to "modify" it as you have to disassemble it to get the motor, pulleys, etc. You have two choices as I see it for C vs CCW on the Lollar style winder. First, you wind everything the same way and reverse the the wiring (ground on the inside vs. ground on the outside). Second, you mount the bobbin with the other service to the baseplate. This would be the same for David King's winder above.

thanks

[David King]

All you need to do to reverse a winding direction is to flip the bobbin over on the winder. This is not rocket science folks. A double ended winder or one that reverses directions is superfluous. I have yet to see a bobbin that can't be flipped over, someone correct me if I'm wrong about this.

Marco, the "modification" of the sewing machine above was a hacksaw and 5 minutes of labor. I could have done like most people and simply mounted my bobbins on the pulley end of the machine with double sided tape.