Show 'n Tell!!!! Show me your (diy) inductor/transformer winding rigs

Hi All,

the last few days i;ve been playing with an old printer and an arduino to make a diy inductor winder. But i'm getting a bit stuck on the mechanical part. So i was wondering what every body else is using for winding diy inductors. Pretty Please with a cherry on top inspire me!!!!!!  ;D

greetings,

Thomas

i dont know about winding inductors but there are lots of rigs for winding pickups and other transformers.
Although chokes generally have thicker wire gauge, i can't image them being too different as far as winding.

http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2006/04/how_to_make_a_guitar_pickup_wi.html
http://i227.photobucket.com/albums/dd248/ehawley/winderpickupholder.jpg
http://www.tdpri.com/forum/just-pickups/119401-pickup-winder-v1-build.html

a buddy of mine got into building guitar pickups, told me he hooked up a magnet to a calculator and would start off by pressing 1 +1 = and then hook up = to near a reed switch so after every pass it would add one number and he would get a digital readout for his wire turns.
of course, there are plenty of numerical devices for this as well.

I would image this method for winding would work on most things.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2gtN-xqQBPY
pretty sweet!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q_Cd_5zTt9w
this guy figured out a clever way to make the winding travel across the bobbin as well.

I'm still trying to decide if i want to go with a stepper motor: Precise, i can input the number of turns before hand and it will turn that amount of turns. or i could go for the dc motor i ripped from my printer, a lot faster and i can control it via PWM. But then i need to make something to count the turns. I got a few infrared sensors from that printer so i'll probably construct something from that to couple to my uC.

Does anyone know of a place that sells rods, gears and belts for these sort of things?

greetings,

Thomas

one place to look for parts for assembly that is cheap is www.allelectronics.com
here is something you could rig up for turns of 99 or less to a reed or magnetic switch
http://www.allelectronics.com/make-a-store/item/CTR-7/LED-2-DIGIT-COUNTER-KIT/1.html
www.goldmine-elec.com has some gears and stuff too..

i would hit up thrift stores for stuff you can gut for parts.
look at some of the places on this list for surplus parts:
http://www.ladyada.net/resources/procure/hobbyist.html

http://cgi.ebay.com/Coil-Filament-Winding-Machine-Counting-Bobbin-Winder_W0QQitemZ380098341332QQcmdZViewItemQQptZLH_DefaultDomain_0?hash=item380098341332&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14&_trkparms=72%3A1205|66%3A2|65%3A12|39%3A1|240%3A1318|301%3A1|293%3A1|294%3A50

Cool analag, that was exactly what i was looking for before i started picking up old free printers for the motors and gears.

I anyone buys up all 10 before i get one, i'm gonna get pissed 8) 

greetings,

Thomas

hey,
now that is snazzy!