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I haven't been around here for a while, and even when I did frequent the forums I was more lurker than anything. But as I get back into things I decided to build a new winder
I wanted to see what I could put together based on items already available from different sources. In reality I wanted to try not to fabricate anything but in the end I couldn't find motor mounts tall enough that would allow a bobbin to spin so if you know of any let me know. I also wanted to play with an arduino so thats is one of the reasons I went that route. To begin with I will probably still control it from a computer through the arduino but this will open up the possibility to upgrade it to a stand alone system in the future. I also have a raspberry pi on the way so I may play around with that a bit as well. I could end up just going USB to parallel and hooking the motor drivers up that way as well. Either way I have a number of options to play with down the road.
For the frame I used aluminum extrusion available from misumi. The great thing about misumi is they will cut the extrusions to length and not charge you for it. Their extrusions also are less expensive than 80/20.
The base is made from 4 200mm lengths of extrusion coming to 200mm X 240mm. Trying to perform as little fabricating as possible I opted to use brackets that misumi has available for connecting extrusions. These could be attached by tapping the extrusions and drilling mounting holes through the outside rails to save money. The brackets with mounting screws and nuts are ~$4 each so they can add up pretty quickly. I also cheaped out and did not get the end caps as those were around $4 each as well. If I did this again I would get the end caps and then tap the extrusions, it would just look a bit cleaner in the end. The rails themselves were less than $3 each.
For the traverse I decided to go with some items that I found on Inventables. They sell a product called makerslide which is an aluminum extrusion with an integrated rail for v-wheels to ride on. The also have some common mounting plates for stepper motors, idler pulleys, .... So I grabbed a small length of makerslide, a gantry plate, v-wheels, motor bracket , ...
The traverse should have about 4" of travel. Some of that will be dependant on the bobbin plate and tailstock and how much room is left between them. At this point point I don't have a need for anything more than that but if I did the basic frame should be expandable to allow for more travel by getting some longer lengths of extrusions. The gantry plate is a bit large as well but offers a really good mounting surface for the wire guide(s). I think depending on the stepper motor used this could easily be setup to wind at least 2 pickups at the same time. I can always change the plate if I want to fabricate fabricate one that is a different size. I could also pretty simply change the drive belt system to a lead screw operation by changing the motor mounts and adding a delrin anti backlash nut.
The bobbin motor and tailstock brackets were fabricated from 6mm aluminum angle from misumi. Again they cut it to size, width wise anyway. The angle is 100mm X 100mm so I needed to trim down the ends a little bit. Then I drilled out the mounting holes for the stepper motor. It's not attached as I forgot to order m3 screws long enough to attach it. Max bobbin size will be ~6in and should hopefully have an rpm around 1500. I'll also write some software that will allow me to use the bobbin motor by itself for hand winding.
I haven't done anything with the tail stock yet because I'm not sure what I'm going to do there. More than likely will put some sort of flange bearing in there with a small length of rod that I can attach different things to. At a minimum I would like some sort of pointed rubber stopper or something like that but haven't found a place that has anything like that. If anyone knows of one please let me know.
Thats all I have so far. I'm still waiting on the arduino and motor drivers to be delivered so I can't play with them yet. I think when all is said and done the parts should be around $300. Once I have everything sorted out I'll put together a parts list.
I wanted to see what I could put together based on items already available from different sources. In reality I wanted to try not to fabricate anything but in the end I couldn't find motor mounts tall enough that would allow a bobbin to spin so if you know of any let me know. I also wanted to play with an arduino so thats is one of the reasons I went that route. To begin with I will probably still control it from a computer through the arduino but this will open up the possibility to upgrade it to a stand alone system in the future. I also have a raspberry pi on the way so I may play around with that a bit as well. I could end up just going USB to parallel and hooking the motor drivers up that way as well. Either way I have a number of options to play with down the road.
For the frame I used aluminum extrusion available from misumi. The great thing about misumi is they will cut the extrusions to length and not charge you for it. Their extrusions also are less expensive than 80/20.
The base is made from 4 200mm lengths of extrusion coming to 200mm X 240mm. Trying to perform as little fabricating as possible I opted to use brackets that misumi has available for connecting extrusions. These could be attached by tapping the extrusions and drilling mounting holes through the outside rails to save money. The brackets with mounting screws and nuts are ~$4 each so they can add up pretty quickly. I also cheaped out and did not get the end caps as those were around $4 each as well. If I did this again I would get the end caps and then tap the extrusions, it would just look a bit cleaner in the end. The rails themselves were less than $3 each.
For the traverse I decided to go with some items that I found on Inventables. They sell a product called makerslide which is an aluminum extrusion with an integrated rail for v-wheels to ride on. The also have some common mounting plates for stepper motors, idler pulleys, .... So I grabbed a small length of makerslide, a gantry plate, v-wheels, motor bracket , ...
The traverse should have about 4" of travel. Some of that will be dependant on the bobbin plate and tailstock and how much room is left between them. At this point point I don't have a need for anything more than that but if I did the basic frame should be expandable to allow for more travel by getting some longer lengths of extrusions. The gantry plate is a bit large as well but offers a really good mounting surface for the wire guide(s). I think depending on the stepper motor used this could easily be setup to wind at least 2 pickups at the same time. I can always change the plate if I want to fabricate fabricate one that is a different size. I could also pretty simply change the drive belt system to a lead screw operation by changing the motor mounts and adding a delrin anti backlash nut.
The bobbin motor and tailstock brackets were fabricated from 6mm aluminum angle from misumi. Again they cut it to size, width wise anyway. The angle is 100mm X 100mm so I needed to trim down the ends a little bit. Then I drilled out the mounting holes for the stepper motor. It's not attached as I forgot to order m3 screws long enough to attach it. Max bobbin size will be ~6in and should hopefully have an rpm around 1500. I'll also write some software that will allow me to use the bobbin motor by itself for hand winding.
I haven't done anything with the tail stock yet because I'm not sure what I'm going to do there. More than likely will put some sort of flange bearing in there with a small length of rod that I can attach different things to. At a minimum I would like some sort of pointed rubber stopper or something like that but haven't found a place that has anything like that. If anyone knows of one please let me know.
Thats all I have so far. I'm still waiting on the arduino and motor drivers to be delivered so I can't play with them yet. I think when all is said and done the parts should be around $300. Once I have everything sorted out I'll put together a parts list.
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