Any Machinists out there doing winding? CNC metal operators?

[Slobrain]

Hey Folks,

I have to ask if anyone is a machinist here that can do aluminum milling or CNC cutting to make the end plates that the bobbins ride on for winding?
maybe do a pulley too? I don't see anyone in my area of living that does that but I've seen guys do this on Orange County Choppers making the wheels for choppers out of aluminum. other parts too with a CNC water machine.

I'm sure someone with a CNC machine could make them. There is a video of some guy and an England music store that made a home made winder but he had someone make the pulley and the endplates.

Seems someone here could put together a shaft, bearings and locking collars. End plates as a package for the homebrew winder guys who want to build them. All you would need would be a sewing machine motor and pedal which I see on Ebay for about $29.95 new and build your own enclosure. I don't have any machine shops locally that can do this. I'm sure someone here has availability t do this.

Look at the pic for the idea I'm talking about.
Cheers

[Mick Bailey]

What did people do before CNC?

Lathes
Millers
Pillar drills
Hand tools.

There's nothing on a winder that needs CNC and sometimes its cheaper to do it the old way. Is there no general machining/engineering place nearby, or college/make facility with machine tools?

Someone could make them for sure - they'd then have to charge StewMac prices to make it worthwhile. Labour, packaging, shipping, product liability, instructions, warranty, overheads, material costs, regulatory compliance all have to be paid for. Then there's opportunity cost - the fact that while making winder kits on a $200,000 setup something more profitable could be made.

[Bruce Johnson]

Well, yeah. I'm a pro Luthier, and I have a fairly complete machine shop, as well as my woodworking shop and electronics lab. I made up my own auto-feed winder including all the face plates and adapters. And I don't have no stinkin' CNC machines. In fact, my hobby is antique machinery. Most of my lathes, mills, drill presses, etc are from 1900-1950. Old time stuff, but they still turn out precision parts.

Winder faceplates and other parts are easy enough to make. But they do take some time. I can't afford to make less than $40 per hour here. I've made face plates for several of the guys here and charged them $35-$75. I made more like $25/hr doing them, but I did them to be nice and help some guys out.

A regular CNC machine shop is going to charge $100/hr minimum. Those machines are expensive to lease or buy.

Yes, I've looked at the idea of making up a kit of parts to sell to hobbyist winders, but it just doesn't pencil out.

[ken]

Iīve been a machinist about 16 years now, and I do have a manual lathe and a bench mill.

Bruce is right... a machine shop will charge local retail to make parts for you, but if you can access normal machine/woodworking tools you can make almost anything you need.

FWIW, Jason Lollarīs winder in his book was made out of MDF using a drill press, a saw and a sander.

ken

[Slobrain]

Iīve been a machinist about 16 years now, and I do have a manual lathe and a bench mill.

Bruce is right... a machine shop will charge local retail to make parts for you, but if you can access normal machine/woodworking tools you can make almost anything you need.

FWIW, Jason Lollarīs winder in his book was made out of MDF using a drill press, a saw and a sander.

ken

Hey Guys,

I guess I am not up to date on machinist charges but I wanted to ask about this looking at the picture in my first post. I don't do any machinist type work but I like the way those parts were made in that picture. I do woodworking and some metal work but it depends on certain situations.


If I were a machinist I would try to put together a package to sell but who knows, maybe it would be just too expensive...

Any thoughts out there on better ways to do this winder? I did find Jason's winder so I added it. looks cool for a home brew. Jason used to be on Ampage years back. I was there too but doing the amp mods and builds, no pickup stuff at all.

Cheers

SLO

[big_teee]

Have you considered converting a small wood lathe into a winder?
Benchtop Wood Lathe - 8" x 12"
If you want to use a motor and assemble everything loose.
How about this.?
http://www.grizzly.com/search?q=pulley+mandrels
If you buy the mandrel, I would stick with the ball bearing.
If you bought the little wood lathe, You could turn your own face pate out of wood.
There are lots of ways to do these things.
I went with the small commercial winder, because it is small and doesn't take up so much real estate.
For Face plates, why couldn't you use a pulley, and bolt a flat piece of metal to it.
Look at these.
http://www.grizzly.com/catalog/2015/main/286?p=286
Good Luck,
T
**edit
Here's a neat little manual counter you could run off a pully
This one looks neat, but is a bit slow for pickup winding.
http://www.amazon.com/Mechanical-Res...turns+counters

[Tom Phillips]

...Here's a neat little manual counter you could run off a pully
Mechanical Resettable 5 Digits Display Rotary Counter - Electrical Timers - Amazon.com

Interesting but note that the max speed spec is 350 R/min. You guys want to wind much faster than that. Correct?

[big_teee]

Interesting but note that the max speed spec is 350 R/min. You guys want to wind much faster than that. Correct?

That would be a no go, I didn't read all of that, mainly looked at the pictures.
My winder will go 1200 rpm on high, and I wind that speed most of the time.
The optical counter would probably be best.
Was mainly trying to show there is a lot of parts out there, if you can be a bit creative.
T

[Bruce Johnson]

Interesting but note that the max speed spec is 350 R/min. You guys want to wind much faster than that. Correct?

I think that max speed spec is a misprint. Rotary counters of that design should have no problem doing 3500 rpm. The rotary counter that I have on my winder, which is a nicer quality model, is rated at 5000 rpm.

The vendor that sells this counter also sells a similar ratcheting lever-arm model, which should have a speed limit of 350 rpm. I think the ad person just copied all the text without taking a closer look.

In my opinion, that counter would be fine for a homebuilt winder. I personally prefer a mechanical counter over an electronic one.