New Winder slowly coming together

[kayakerca]

For hook up wire on the bobbins, I use this.
Ul1007-1569 28 Awg Stranded Hook Up Wire 100 Feet White: Electronic Component Wire: Amazon.com: Industrial & Scientific
In white, black, red, and green.
T

The price differential for Canada is pretty impressive!

http://www.amazon.ca/UL1007-1569-Str...07-1569+28+Awg

Amazon.com = $5.95 U.S. per 100'
Amazon.ca = $62.70 Cdn. per 100'

[Hardtail]

Hey Slobrain,
Nice winder! Where do you get those guides and shafts to guide the wire? I see them on most winders. Are they just from a local hardware store?

[Slobrain]

Hey Slobrain,
Nice winder! Where do you get those guides and shafts to guide the wire? I see them on most winders. Are they just from a local hardware store?

The shafts are from the sewing machine I gutted for the build. It was a Singer stylist 833, I said 877 on the video but was wrong. I cut the 1/4 shafts down to fit and the nylon guides are from Home depot. I just drilled and tapped them for the Allen screws to keep them in place. I'm going to cut the guide posts down after doing some practice I find I made the guide post much too hi. I want to rest my hand on the base and guide the wire from under the guide shaft.

[Hardtail]

The shafts are from the sewing machine I gutted for the build. It was a Singer stylist 833, I said 877 on the video but was wrong. I cut the 1/4 shafts down to fit and the nylon guides are from Home depot. I just drilled and tapped them for the Allen screws to keep them in place. I'm going to cut the guide posts down after doing some practice I find I made the guide post much too hi. I want to rest my hand on the base and guide the wire from under the guide shaft.

Thanks for the tip. I have some similar shafts from the Kenmore I've gutted and shouldn't have a problem drilling and tapping the guides. I think I'll keep mine low as well.

[Jason Rodgers]

I want to rest my hand on the base and guide the wire from under the guide shaft.

This is definitely something you want to consider when designing your winder. Though I have the Lollar book, and read it front to back several times before starting my winder, I chose the tower style of the Schatten because I thought it worked better with the parts I had. I also originally had the guide arm low and out front like the Schatten, which made for a fairly comfortable hand position. Lollar saw my post on the MIMF and suggested I bring the guides closer to the bobbin for better traverse control, which it does; the felt tensioner was added at the same time. Despite this little evolution making the quality of wind better, it leaves the hand in an unsupported position, which leads to fatigue easily. I have an idea to steal a wire guided (like a bicycle brake) traverser setup I saw someone post here on the MEF to remedy this.

[Slobrain]

This is definitely something you want to consider when designing your winder. Though I have the Lollar book, and read it front to back several times before starting my winder, I chose the tower style of the Schatten because I thought it worked better with the parts I had. I also originally had the guide arm low and out front like the Schatten, which made for a fairly comfortable hand position. Lollar saw my post on the MIMF and suggested I bring the guides closer to the bobbin for better traverse control, which it does; the felt tensioner was added at the same time. Despite this little evolution making the quality of wind better, it leaves the hand in an unsupported position, which leads to fatigue easily. I have an idea to steal a wire guided (like a bicycle brake) traverser setup I saw someone post here on the MEF to remedy this.

Did Jason say how close to install the guide? I'm wondering if I should have did mine differently...

[Jason Rodgers]

No. Just that the closer you get the more control you have in laying down the wire. The first iteration of my guide bar put it about 10"-11" from the bobbin. While I was able to build some fairly even coils, I could feel that length of wire whipping around.

[Slobrain]

No. Just that the closer you get the more control you have in laying down the wire. The first iteration of my guide bar put it about 10"-11" from the bobbin. While I was able to build some fairly even coils, I could feel that length of wire whipping around.

Hey Jason, How is Lollars book? I want to get a copy but not at the going prices... Too much when they were originally $19.95...

[David King]

I thought Jason L had reissued it on CD. Have you checked his site?

Put the guides as close to the bobbin as you can get them, put the tensioner as far away as you can. I'm not sure if Lollar had that figured out when he wrote the book but he might have.

[kayakerca]

I thought Jason L had reissued it on CD. Have you checked his site?

I came across an "illegal/unauthorized" soft copy of the book a few years back when I first started thinking about winding. Read a bit of it and quickly decided the man deserved the $60 he was asking for the book and bought from his website. It certainly significantly reduced the learning/ignorance curve for me. I think it is only available in the ring bound hard copy.

So I guess Mr. Lollar is at least partially to blame for the many thousands of $$$ I have invested into this hobby since that time. That said, it's the greatest retirement hobby I can imagine!

[Jason Rodgers]

Yeah, good stuff. It's mostly concerned with building the winder, with pickup winding info - including common bobbin sizes - toward the back. The format is decidedly low-fi, but the content certainly is not.

[Slobrain]

I came across an "illegal/unauthorized" soft copy of the book a few years back when I first started thinking about winding. Read a bit of it and quickly decided the man deserved the $60 he was asking for the book and bought from his website. It certainly significantly reduced the learning/ignorance curve for me. I think it is only available in the ring bound hard copy.

So I guess Mr. Lollar is at least partially to blame for the many thousands of $$$ I have invested into this hobby since that time. That said, it's the greatest retirement hobby I can imagine!

Hey kayakerca,

I might spring for the book but I'm on a super tight budget right now. I already have the winder built, may tweak it a bit but I mostly need lots of good pickup info to learn from for any future projects.

[John_H]

I might spring for the book but I'm on a super tight budget right now.

Have You checked you local library system?

[kayakerca]

Hey kayakerca,

I might spring for the book but I'm on a super tight budget right now. I already have the winder built, may tweak it a bit but I mostly need lots of good pickup info to learn from for any future projects.

If you are planning on only winding a handful of pickups for you own personal use, then it would be a waste of your money to purchase the book.

If your objective is to wind and sell pickups and take a tremendous amount of pride saying you got into the winding business and only invested, say, $50, then it would be a waste of your money to purchase the book.

If believe the book is going to reveal some "magic formula" for winding pickups, then it would be a waste of your money to purchase the book.

If you believe this forum provides you access to everything you need to know about winding pickups, then it would be a waste of your money to purchase the book.

If you have some money to spend and you are looking for a winding resource that has some info not in this forum (or at least not that I have every come across), that is well organized, a good introduction to winding and pickups and an interesting read from a guy who has been there. . . it's money well spent. For me, the info on the top half of page 22 alone was worth the $60. But, I'm a guy that likes to read about stuff I'm interested in both in forum environments and in hard copy of the library. The half of the book about building the winder seems a lot like a guys personal journey in building a winder that he wanted to share. The other half of the book has some good info about lots of other winding stuff.

All that said, I think the book is as much a personal choice relating to how you learn as anything and I may well be the only winder in the forum that has purchased it. It was a good investment for me, but given everything I've read in this thread, it may well not be the best use of $$$ for you. There's no magic either in the book or this forum. You will wind great stuff that players like all on your own and create your own mojo in your winds. The members here are extremely helpful. You'll just get there the way you are going to get there.

[big_teee]

IMO, if you do your homework, most info is available here.
The info on building the cam winder was IMO more relevant when the book was written.
Most here do either hand guided, or more sophisticated Auto winders.
If you copy others pickup formulas, then pickup specs IMO is relevant.
If you just use pickup specs for a starting point to make your own recipes, then IMO there is enough of that listed here.
Also if you are already a pretty good DIYer, then you may not need the book.
Keep in mind I don't have the book, but I'm not much of a follower, so I saved my money!
T