Where to start with making your own pickup covers and bobbins ?

[Slausonm]

Hello,
I am new here and very new to making and winding pickups. I started making a winder to make pickups for an electric mandolin project I am doing at the school where I teach. We have a laser engraver at school. The bobbin material I used was cut easily on this engraver. Since sign making/awards/plaque making is pretty common in most areas and they have laser engravers, getting some materials cut this way shouldn't be too expensive especially if you supply the art work. Here is a video of the pickups I started making with kids.

Pickup_Winder.wmv - YouTube

In addition to the comments other's have said about injection molding, yes it can be expensive, but there are small hobby machines that should be large enough to do the job and they are in the $2000 price range. I've built four hobby injection molders from scratch and it can be done for a hundred dollars or so if you have access to the machinery to make them. The first one I built was from plans from Home Shop Machinist magazine. I've also used the Gingery plans but don't like that machine as well. Molds are probably the tough part. I plan to make some for the next iteration of my school project.

Thanks for the great info on this site. I've learned a great deal already.

Matt

[Brian L]

Injection molding

I have had 6 metal dies made and 7 injection mold dies made and the quotes for each of these parts ranged from $1,000 to $15,000 for the same USA made part! You just have to shop around and find places you feel you can trust and that want to do smaller runs. My advice for injection molded parts is to pay for a universal MUD base that has a couple of cavities that are bug enough for the biggest plastic part you might need. Once the MUD base is made it is just a matter of tooling individual inserts different parts which in the long run is cheapest.

Long time ago (seventh, eighth grade) I made a plastic extruder as a science fair project. My father spent most of his working career in the plastics industry. It consisted of a thick walled pipe, the heating element from an electric stove, eighteen inch bit that fit the ID of the pipe (ground the groove deeper so more of the pellets would run through), an old washing machine motor and a reostat. Worked like a charm. Even got me to States. If this would be of interest, and with the understanding that he now has Alzheimers, I will talk with him and see if the injection process is something that can be stepped down to the 'cottage industry' level.

[jbforrer]

Greetings,

Interesting thread ... always something new to work on. My experience with poly casting resin is quite positive, except for some issues with painting that seems a bit tricky but I believe doable.

Below is a picture of my efforts using this method to make a DeArmond lookalike. It was made off a silicone-rubber mold taken off a DeArmond pickup that came in for a rewind.

Cheers,

--JBF

[jason lollar]

Its not so hard- i have been making P-90 bobbins since the 70's like gibson made in the 40's with built up parts, you make a couple jigs and making a bobbin takes a matter of minutes. At this point i have made well over 10,000 P-90 bobbins if not 5X that many- seriously. i was making my wide range bucker bobbins that way too for about a year but finally got them moulded because making 2 bobbins per pickup is a bigger savings to have them made. Right now alot of USA companies are willing to work for less than they did but i cant think of any kind of bobbin you couldnt make by hand- some might take too long but most once you set up - its not difficult at all. It can help immensely to see it done if you dont have much experience with tools or making anything and thats why I wrote the book on it but there is nothing difficult about making parts. I think too many guys use -"i gotta have a mould made" as a way to hold themselves back or "I dont know how to use a tool". I can think of one guy that has a reputation as a pickup guru that cant make a bobbin which i find really odd but typical.
Most of the old 30's and 40's pickups were handmade bobbins crudely done. You can make a bobbin by hand that looks machine made if you pay attention.

[SkinnyWire]

Well Jason, some folks just don't want to mess with it. When someone asks me for something different, I normally recommend they contact you. I don't have the time right now to branch out into anything/everything bobbins. I even gave up on P-90s because most of the available parts are crap. It's obviously an easy bobbin to make, but I have enough to do. Hope you don't mind me sending folks your way though.