Oscillating Fan For Coil Winder

[Eastbville]

I'm a new builder of a winding machine and this may be a question that has been answered elsewhere: When acquiring an oscillating fan to build the winding guide, do you find any outstanding brands/makes that have reliable gears, maybe even metal gearing? I've assembled my guide using a fairly inexpensive 16" oscillating fan motor/gear setup which I feel won't be too reliable for a long term winder. Thank you for the great help offered on this site.

[David King]

Won't an oscillating fan limit your turns per layer and have all the same problems of any rotational motion being converted to linear motion i.e. serious lag at the extremities of motion and therefore hourglass shaped coils? I don't say this is a bad thing because I've never used one. I realize Jason is probably the person who put this design concept out into the world. It was valid 10-20 years ago but I doubt he still uses it to make his pickups.

[jason lollar]

"I don't say this is a bad thing because I've never used one. I realize Jason is probably the person who put this design concept out into the world. It was valid 10-20 years ago but I doubt he still uses it to make his pickups."
no the fan was used to drive a cam because it is a gear motor and with the push button defeat you can disengage it at any time and handwind with it. You would have to read the book

[jason lollar]

oh also I dont know about what brands are good- all that stuff was found in junk stores so whatever you find that has all the features listed will work.

[ReWind]

Would a greamotor from McMaster or eBay not work? You can find them in any RPM/voltage range you want for pretty cheap, and vary the speed (on a DC gearmotor) with a simple pot. Easy enough to disable with a SPST switch.

[Eastbville]

Thank you for the information. I live in a small town without sufficient junk stores to dig through and find goods, so I ordered a fan off ebay which is pretty flimsy. I have a twist on the designs I've seen and the gear reduction motor is where I'm headed by connecting to an assembly having the cam attached. I've built one and it saves real estate on the machine's board and gets the push-rod in the correct location by stacking the two items. When I get it 100% assembled and proven I'll post pictures. Thank you, everyone, again.