New Guitar Pickup Mini Coil Winder

[CLaNZeR]

Hi

Hope you do not mind me posting in here and if you do, then simply tell me to go away.

We have designed a few CNC Coil Winding machines over the last couple of years and one of our popular machines was adopted by a few Guitar Winding Companies, as well as the hobby individual guys.

This to me was a surprise as when we first designed the CNC Coil Winding Machine, the last people in the world we though of was the guitar pickup community.

But I listened to what the guys wanted and we implemented a pickup database in the software and developed it with it's own Guitar Pickup database.

We are not a hit and run company and any bugs or extras the guys have requested, we have done our best to implement them.

Over the last year, the CNC Coil Winder sales have gone really well, but daily now we are getting emails from Guitar Pickup Winders asking for prices on the machine and coming back with the answer of our machine is way out of budget.

So we have listened to the Pickup community and over the last couple of months have came up with a low cost design that we hope will suit the needs of hobby guys and small business's.

We have called it the Mini Coil Winder machine and it is dedicated to winding Guitar Pickup Coils.
It has a pre-loaded database of 28 popular pickup coils. Also you can define your own pickups and save them.

It is controlled via PC and USB port and has fully automatic mode, as well as manual control for people still wanting to wind by hand.

You are welcome to check out the following link for pictures and more details

CNC Design Limited - Guitar Pickup Mini Coil Winder




We are offering this in Kit and assembled options and think we have the price right.

We have seen manual winders for more than this price and I think what we add is going to make it more than appealing to some of you.


Option1: Mini Coil Winder Kit

This is the complete kit of parts for people wanting to save a bit of money and build it themselves.
All the pieces you see in the pictures will be supplied in the kit form and not assembled.
Also this includes the electronics being in kit form as well with PCB and all the electronics components needed.
You will need to solder up the PCB with all the parts and then bolt everything together.

The price of Option1 is £480.00 + Shipping

Option2: Mini Coil Winder with assembly service.

If you do not want to build up the kit and would like to buy it fully built and tested, then we will be offering a build service.
So you will still be buying a kit as such but we will assemble this end and ship it out fully built and tested.

The price of Option2 is £630.00 + Shipping

All our machines come with 12 months return to base warranty and support via, web, email or telephone.

Again moderators/admins feel free to delete this post if it goes against your policies.

Cheers

Sean.

http://www.ukcnc.net

[Chris Turner]

Very cool! A bit pricey for us Yanks considering the GBP/USD exchange rate (not that I don't think it's worth it, mind you), but looks great!

[John_H]

That's a nice looking machine. It's almost amazing to see an apparatus of this caliber being produced for such a niche market.

[kayakerca]

That is a very cool looking little unit! Very compact. Very well constructed. Interesting approach having the felt tensioner doubling as the wire guide. Nice universal bobbin mounting plate. Not inexpensive, but nor should it be. Based on what I can see and what I've built, I believe this unit deserves a two thumbs up as they say.

[CLaNZeR]

Thanks for the feedback

I have updated the product pages tonight showing the manual add on control and more details.



It is indeed difficult to get the price low as we wanted to build a machine that was simple to assemble but also sturdy.
So 10mm aluminium plates it was, precision milling was needed also as we wanted the tailstock to line up dead centre on the bobbin plate and all the plates to match up to very tight tolerances.

Getting the bobbin plate cut out of single stock with all the holes pre tapped also was not cheap. But having it milled from one part with tight tolerances does balance it up lovely and also allows us to take the steppers to above normal speeds.

This is before we even get onto the electronics.
We could of gone for cheap stepper drivers, but instead we went for integrated motors with drivers. Having used these before in other machines we know they are robust and accurate.

All this adds up and if we wanted to make just 1 or 2 machines, our cost price would come in close to what we are selling it for.

But we have gone out on a limb and ordered in bulk quantities so we can actually get it to what we consider within reach of the small business/hobby guys.

We could indeed produce a unit that is half the price of this unit, but the stability and reliability would be in question and we would not be happy with that.

In one respect all the software/firmware and electronics are designed in house, so we do not have to bump the prices up even more to cover 3rd party developers that other companies need to bring in.


Cheers

Sean.

[big_teee]

Is a manual model kit with no traverse available?
with a large display counter, no computer interface?
With a roller type guide stops?
I Dig the built in tail stock.
It all looks very heavy duty.
Could you list a email here?
Can you explain the 6 magnets?
T

[CLaNZeR]

Hi T

I was planning on doing just a manual winder also, but there are so many on the market already, that I wanted to offer something different.

At the moment in manual mode you will need a computer to still place it in manual mode and also display the amount of winds that have passed.
Also it integrates with the pickup database, so you can choose a pickup and it will load the amount of winds expected.
It will also shut off automatically when the wind count has been reached.

Getting the stepper motors above 300 RPM in manual mode was a challenge as usually with a DC motor you have a variable pot that controls the PWN being sent to it. You can then just wiz this up and down and the motor will catch up or slow down with ease.

With the steppers if you just wound the speed up to 300 RPM+, say 1000 RPM then it would just Jam and make hell of a noise. So it took a while to get the firmware routines correct for this.
But works well, must admit.
We decided on the variable speed controller as being movable to allow for right and left handed people, instead of having double shafts and making the unit bigger.


We could of made it stand alone for manual mode with a switch, but then we would have to add a display and add extra components that would increase the price. So again balance.

Please feel free to follow the link to our site and hit the contact button as I do not want to push my luck in these forums.

The 6 magnets are an option if you want to use them and allow you to rewind pickups that have the magnets already pushed into them.
Then butt up the tailstock to try keep it centre !

Cheers

Sean.

[big_teee]

OK, but that looked like another option for manual winders that want a Heavy Duty stand alone Unit.
I wind in a shop building, without computers.
I Have enough computers in the house, don't want them in my shop.
Good Luck,
T

[the great waldo]

Hi T

The magnets are strong enough to clamp a humbucker bobbin with the slugs or screws inserted although I also use a couple of small pins in the faceplate to index with the bobbin screw holes (where the small brass screws mount the bobbins to the humbucker baseplate)

CHEERS

Andrew

[big_teee]

Hi Andrew:
Looks like the magnets would work best with steel vs. magnets.
I would probably have them the wrong polarity, at the wrong time, or maybe the mags would have to be unmagnetized.
Cool stuff, lots of different gear, and different ways to accomplish the same thing.
T

[the great waldo]

Hi T

I just use the magnet faceplate for humbuckers I have another faceplate for strat type pickups.

Cheers

Andrew

[kayakerca]

I was planning on doing just a manual winder also, but there are so many on the market already, that I wanted to offer something different.

We could of made it stand alone for manual mode with a switch, but then we would have to add a display and add extra components that would increase the price. So again balance.


Cheers

Sean.

Your observations relating to the manual winder space are well founded in my opinion. You'd probably find that most everyone would agree that a manual winder from your shop would be the premier unit available in the marketplace, but close to none of the hobbyist winders or small business types would want to make that level of investment in a manual winder, especially when your full on CNC kit version just north of $900 Cdn. I'm guessing you'd be hard pressed to find a wind done by a hobbyist or small business winder in their career that your new mini CNC winder couldn't manage with ease.

The only thing I would be curious about is any increased winding tension of the off axis path the wire takes between the felt pads when the end of the bobbin passes at its greatest distance from the bobbin mounting plate axis. But I'm guessing it's just not an issue.

All I can say is "well done Sean"!

[CLaNZeR]

Thanks Jim

I uploaded a video tonight. showing it doing 5000 winds at 1570 RPM, even though I know that most people would probably wind under this speed.

I am not a guitar pickup winder myself and do not know a lot about them.
But the machine has been designed on the feedback from guys that wind them all the time.

Also the machine is a starting base as such, so if people wanted to adapt the machine by adding a guide nozzle extension and some sort of spool feeder before the tensioner etc, the open design should allow for this.

Here is a video link that may or may answer your questions regards the working and height and angle just using a felt tensioner .

Cheers

Sean.

[kayakerca]

Also the machine is a starting base as such, so if people wanted to adapt the machine by adding a guide nozzle extension and some sort of spool feeder before the tensioner etc, the open design should allow for this.


Cheers

Sean.

Yes, attaching a small piece of aluminum angle with the felt tensioner cap screws that would act as a mount for a wire guide nozzle would be within any hobbyist's skill set.

Also within any hobbyst' skill set would be drilling a couple of holes in the back side of the unit's baseplate to mount a brass rod with a 90° bend and a couple stop collars in line with the bobbin would be all you need for hand guided winding. Just turn the winder back side to the front and away you go old school like.

It's just a beautiful thing! So cool. . .

Addendum. . .

I like the look of that mounting plate so much I'll seriously have to think about taking a day or two and milling up something similar to see if the 4240 g-cm low speed torque of the stepper motor I use for my winder with its can handle the extra mass.

[CLaNZeR]

Hi Jim

Nice suggestions and thanks.

No need to fit anything for hand guiding as the tension arm is lathed down for the manual wire guiding.
So just jog it into place before putting the machine into manual mode and run your wire left and right.



As long as you make the round bobbin plate balanced right, it should be fine with the stepper motor. Uneven and it can cause vibration and cause the stepper to jam at higher speeds.


Cheers

Sean.