Gettin started (lookin into winders)

[copperheadroads]

A small wood lathe would make an exceptional winder .
Mine has a potentiometer to control its speed along with its "soft" or slow start ,which takes probably 5 to 7 seconds to reach max rpm . =(minimun wire breakage)
Compared to my dimmer switch on my old winder , the lathe's desired speed stays very consistant, opossed to the dimmers up & dowm behaviour from my old sewing machine motoe powered winder.
I have come accustomed to a foot pedal ,So one of those router control pedals will be paramount when I peace together my new "Hand'' winder
.
.....................Any one else having trouble with spell check not working with this site ?

[tommyd73069]

A small wood lathe would make an exceptional winder .
Mine has a potentiometer to control its speed along with its "soft" or slow start ,which takes probably 5 to 7 seconds to reach max rpm . =(minimun wire breakage)
Compared to my dimmer switch on my old winder , the lathe's desired speed stays very consistant, opossed to the dimmers up & dowm behaviour from my old sewing machine motoe powered winder.
I have come accustomed to a foot pedal ,So one of those router control pedals will be paramount when I peace together my new "Hand'' winder
.
.....................Any one else having trouble with spell check not working with this site ?

It's all a function of design. I can start my sewing machine based winder as slow as one revolution at a time and speed up or slow down at any rate. But it's because of the design, not the way a sewing machine motor starts and stops. For me the foot pedal is a key component in mine. I wouldn't give up that feature for anything a mini-lathe might add.

At the cost of a mini lathe, I'd buy a commercial winder and be done with it. The idea I had behind mine was to do it for under $100.00. I did it for under $75. I have something very similar to the winder, StewMac sells for $300 and it works as well. Cheapest lathe HF has is $129. By the time I pay sales tax and modify it, I'd have at least $200. Another $100, I don't have to fiddle with anything, I just start winding...with a warranty. In the guitar hobby, $100 is not much.

If I were going to wind for fun and profit, I'd buy a purpose built production unit and go into production. I wouldn't spend time or effort on creating one, unless I could build something innovative and new. I'd invest that effort in growing my pickup business.

I'm not that committed or inventive. I'm more like a home brewer than the next Budweiser, or even the local brew pub. I'm just brewing up some pickups out in the shop and potting them on the kitchen stove, which is what I like about the whole deal. Same thing I like about building a guitar, the hands on part. As a hobby, I serve one master, quality. As a business, time and cost become factors. This brings compromises. You can't 'afford' to redo a set until it's just the way you want them and still run a business.

So it boils down to two issues. How you design your winder and how you intend to use it. That would be how I determined the way I wound pickups. The rest falls into place from there. As a hobby, tinker all you like. As a business, spend time building pickups and a reputation, not pickup winders, unless building pickup winders is your business. My thoughts. Your mileage may very. Good luck in brewing up yours.

[kayakerca]

So it boils down to two issues. How you design your winder and how you intend to use it. That would be how I determined the way I wound pickups. The rest falls into place from there. As a hobby, tinker all you like. As a business, spend time building pickups and a reputation, not pickup winders, unless building pickup winders is your business. My thoughts. Your mileage may very. Good luck in brewing up yours.

From my very limited time as a newbie tinkerer hobbyist winder, I've come to realize that winding devices come in all shapes and forms imaginable. Some buy p/u specific coil winder, others like to design and build their own. I can't see that there could possibly be any right of wrong way as to how a person comes to have that thing on the bench that's spooling up thousand's of turns of hair thin wire that ultimately becomes a pickup. I think there are a lot like myself that (by their nature) like to tinker with stuff and build their own, they get another idea and then build that winder. In 2 years, I've built a hand guided unit from a sewing machine, a fully sync'd for tpl mechanical winder (based on the Jason Lollar book) and a full-on CNC Winder. Nothing was wrong with any of them or how I came to acquire them. As with so many others I've seen around here, it's just part of the path to the hobby or business as the case may be. It's all good.

[tommyd73069]

From my very limited time as a newbie tinkerer hobbyist winder, I've come to realize that winding devices come in all shapes and forms imaginable. Some buy p/u specific coil winder, others like to design and build their own. I can't see that there could possibly be any right of wrong way as to how a person comes to have that thing on the bench that's spooling up 1,000's of turns of hair thin wire that ultimately becomes a pickup. I think there are a lot like myself that (by their nature) like to tinker with stuff and build their own, they get another idea and then build that winder. In 2 years, I've built a hand guided unit from a sewing machine, a fully sync'd for tpl mechanical winder (based on the Jason Lollar book) and a full-on CNC Winder. Nothing was wrong with any of them or how I came to acquire them. As with so many others I've seen around here, it's just part of the path to the hobby or business as the case may be. It's all good.

Did you get a lot of mileage of of Jason's book? Considering buying it, but $60 for 70 pages, without seeing a table of contents or index is hard to justify. Clearly, he doesn't answer questions about it or it's contents, according to his site.

I've already built my winder, is there enough other stuff on winding pickups to make it worth it?

[John_H]

Did you get a lot of mileage of of Jason's book? Considering buying it, but $60 for 70 pages, without seeing a table of contents or index is hard to justify. Clearly, he doesn't answer questions about it or it's contents, according to his site.

I've already built my winder, is there enough other stuff on winding pickups to make it worth it?

Check your local public library. They might have a copy, or be able to get one on "book loan".

[tommyd73069]

Check your local public library. They might have a copy, or be able to get one on "book loan".

Really? His book is that popular?

Asking someone that already parted with $60 to borrow it, seems like asking a mechanic to borrow tools. I wouldn't think of it.

[big_teee]

Really? His book is that popular?

Asking someone that already parted with $60 to borrow it, seems like asking a mechanic to borrow tools. I wouldn't think of it.

Did you check out the Resources Thread.
Lots of listings and free places to go from there.
I'm sure the book is great, but I've never bought a book.
I just try to be a sponge and soak up everything Off the Internet.
http://music-electronics-forum.com/t30228/

[John_H]

Really? His book is that popular?

Asking someone that already parted with $60 to borrow it, seems like asking a mechanic to borrow tools. I wouldn't think of it.

It's popular enough that he re-released it. The book loan is from other library's.

[John_H]

I ordered one of those last night. For $13, and free shipping, I had to check it out. You might not want to wait around. There were only a few left.

I've been skeptical about ordering from China. The Counter/Sensor arrived in two weeks. It was well before the anticipated delivery.

[buddha0709]

I've been skeptical about ordering from China. The Counter/Sensor arrived in two weeks. It was well before the anticipated delivery.

Me too, mine arrived in about 2 weeks. I installed it on my lathe winder last night and it works perfectly at 750rpm, I haven't tried it any faster yet but I think it can go to 1200ish rpm per the specs.

[tommyd73069]

Me too, mine arrived in about 2 weeks. I installed it on my lathe winder last night and it works perfectly at 750rpm, I haven't tried it any faster yet but I think it can go to 1200ish rpm per the specs.

For $13 I had to find out. Mine's going strong. Glad to hear it works for you, too.