Motorized Coil Winder Plans?

I just had a sobering experience after getting quotes for seemingly simple coil winders. The ones that have automated spread control start at $5K. Gulp...

Has anyone come across plans for a coil winder with some way of automated spread control? Little stepper motor jobby or some such?

I tried to wind 42 gauge wire neatly onto a bobbin and after fifteen minutes I realized that it will take hours to wind a single transformer. Plus that crap will not stay on if you let up on the tension. So much for rapid protyping.

One really needs a coil winder for this job.

Tamas

You can do it out of lathe (I got Homier 7"-12" for $299.) That what I was thinking--you could use a threading cut feature of the lathe. On a spindle install a RPM sensor, and on a leadscrew put two steppers one on each side. The steppers rotation speed should be adjustable for different pitches, but also looped with the spindle sensor--the faster the spindle--the faster the leadscrew. Two steppers are because one cannot change direction fast enough. As soon as carriage goes into, lets say far left, you hit a switch, which breaks one motor and turnes another, with opposite direction. Actually, you could make something like a linear motion counter to set this range automatically, or even to connect to computer.

OK, I may get a cheapy lathe from Harbor Freight and play around with it. Winding should go faster even without the spread control. I just have to bring the powerswitch to a footpedal to stop at each layer.

Thank You!!!!!!
Tamas

Stewart Macdonald, the guitar builder supplier, just added a pickup winding machine to their line, $350 I think. Maybe that'd be a cheaper alternative?

Bear

Tamas

http://www.grainger.com the industral supplier
had a linemaster foot switch (looks kind of like a wah petal)
It had a speed control in it.
Works great but we used it to power another speed control.
The last speed control powered the motor. It was used as a max
speed control and the foot switch went from zero to
the max speed you thought you could wind.

Actually, first is better to try to wound some trafos on primitive hand
winder...then test 'em...then if trafo passed all tests-
(hehe, it is not simple to wound good sounding trafo
with good specs-too much tricks and woodoo!)
it is subject for talk about Motorized Coil Winder ))

[quote author="ijr"]it is not simple to wound good sounding trafo
with good specs-too much tricks and woodoo![/quote]

Yes, I do not expect it to be easy. :sad:
Any secrets you may volunteer to share?
My intention was to automate single layers first. I have little time for DIY and any automated task that saves time is a big help.

Cheers,
Tamas

[quote author="tk@halmi"]
Yes, I do not expect it to be easy. :sad:
Any secrets you may volunteer to share?
[/quote]

Yes. First, butcher a few (we have a good example here on the board :grin and see how they are done, then try to copy it. Try to understand why yours sounds different from original, play with different type of laminations, try different winding techniques, read a lot, etc... In short--lotsa experiments :evil: .

here is a basic mechanic idea. http://public.fotki.com/shemtov/studio/windmachine.html

and this one is more simple, the guide should be free to speen, and the round gobo could be changed for different types of width.
http://public.fotki.com/shemtov/studio/windmachine-1.html

Years ago I built this Coil winding machine with Chris Kinman that winds and layers guitar pickups at 3500rpm. If a wire brakes on any of the 8 pickups being wound the three phase motor controller uses reverse phase braking to stop in less than 1 rev which was really something to see. I designed the electronics to step for different wire gauges by using a stepper motor and multiple slotted optic disk on the main shaft to control the steps with an optic reversing stops to do the layering. The whole machine cost less than $5000AUD

Most small guitar shops I have seen use a motor and foot pedal controller from an old sowing machine mounted with a counter. This idea should work fine for most inductor winding. One of the biggest things we found when winding coils was you needed a way of controlling tension of the wire as it affected the over inductance. So the wire was run between some pressured felt blocks to keep it constant.



Kinman makes true original fender tone pickups that are noise cancelling. Read more about it here. www.kinman.com

Joe

www.jlmaudio.com

I know some China comrads makin' fakes of Jensens
(at least they have same winding geometry and turn numbers),
but they faaaar from Jensen..
Saturates like OEP's ands sounds like hell.
The GIG is theirs mu-cans. With allmost same like without.
:grin:
$5/trafo, and no need to build this freaky winder )))

Or...you need to cut not just one CJ who cutted zillions of trafos, but also
cut the brains of these Jensens...
Getting good trafo is woodoo and
people NOT TALKING about some hidden stuff.
(please, don't cont me in "audiofulls" or people who don't want to give
secrets...just tried a lot of things, and there's too much things to learn-
like year or more take me to make "in-beetween-other-work"
first 1:7 micinput with not terrible sqw. resp. and not saturating
like modem's trafo or OEP.)

Wow, Joe has build one heck of a winding machine there!!!

I am finding out that high nickel lamination is really expensive. If you add up the small quantity pricing for lams, wires, other supplies and one's TIME paying $30 for a ready-made transformer is a pretty good deal.

Tamas

Don't forget $7-12 for really good mu-can in qty's >500

Joe

That is nice work on the winder. Chris Kinman pickups are nice from what people have told me.

Have you looked into AC drive controls? Some have built in PID controllers. Some of the new PLCs are interesting.

I first heard about Kinman pickups at ampage.org years ago I believe it was when the whole patent mess started.