Winding machine

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Tubetec

Well-known member
Joined
Nov 18, 2015
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5,951
Finally collected my Shenzen winder ,
For anyone wondering about whats inside the box its two motors ,one stepper motor connected to a ball screw for the traverse mech  and another larger motor with the shaft directly coupled to the part the bobbin mounts on . Everything looks well made and solid , only issue so far is they supplied it with a european plug and adapter without any ground connection  , easy to replace the mains plug in any case .
More to follow soon.
 
Cheers Jacob,
I misplaced a special micro sd to xd adapter card belong to my camera a good while back and thats hampered my abillity to document things properly here. I went to a few  local camera shops and they tried to embarrass  me into buying a new camera ,which I didnt take kindly to at all  :mad:

I'll figure out a workaround and get up some gut shots up as soon as I can ,  for what its worth the build quality seems excellent , 2mm steel casework ,very solid  and rigid, the wiring is nice and tidy with that spiral cable tidy for neatness .
Absolutely no slop or play in any of the mechanical linkages either ,so looks like it should handle finer wires nicely .
 
Main drive motor has a 12mm shaft and a coupler on the end , Ive been fiddling around with various bits from the hardware store but the trouble is an M12 threaded bar wont mount up nicely to it , even the plain section of a cut down M12 bolt is marginally under 12mm ,so its wonky . While 12mm would probably be fine for larger transformers bobbins ,small inductor and transformers bobbins could be much to small to mount on that.

I was thinking of trying a  collet chuck , heres one from ebay , made for a 12mm motor shaft , including  a full set of spring collets its less than $30 .

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Motor-Shaft-Collet-Chuck-ER20A-12mm-Rod-Tool-Holder-CNC-Milling-40CR-Type-A-Nut/401870468529

Looks like it would make an easy and accurate way of mounting up different work pieces ,any other ideas welcome.
 

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I saw some winding companies  stocked plastic containers with a ceramic insert at the top to allow the magnet wire unimpeded flow upwards off the spool  towards the machine or tensioner .
I found a cylindrical food container ,drilled a hole in  the end as it will sit upside down , pressed in a ceramic ring recovered from an old fishing rod ,  unsurprisingly it works exactly as it should , low friction as it unwinds yet enough when the machine is stopped to prevent any tendency for turns to unravel or snag up on the supply spool, 
Just for illustration of principle see pic below ,  I actually used a much smaller 1.4 liter bpa free food  container with the four side clasps  , It seems a worthwhile way to store  say half a dozen of the finer grade wires you might use regularly , keeps it safe from dust or debris and saves setting up time or having to mount up spools .










 

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There seems to be a few variations of it up on ebay , I bought mine from Germany .

cnc coil winding machine  search on ebay should find you some of the options , I got the one with the square buttons

https://www.ebay.de/itm/400W-Neu-Automatische-Spule-Wickler-Wickelmaschine-Einstellbar-CNC-0-03-1-2mm/122654965018?hash=item1c8ece3d1a:g:wmIAAOSwPpZZ5rw1

Thats the same machine as I got , price is still the same too. 




 
I started out with a similar hand cranked winder a few years ago , winding with right hand and guiding the wire with the left I found awkward , also trying to do 5-10 thousand turns handcranked with  fine wire didnt work very well . After that I made my own small coil winder from a cordless electric drill with trigger speed control and mechanical turns counter . I did buy extra parts with the intention of adding a  traverse and electronic counter , but in the end I cut my losses and  settled for the Chinese unit which Im very happy with .
 
Tubetec said:
After that I made my own small coil winder from a cordless electric drill with trigger speed control and mechanical turns counter . I did buy extra parts with the intention of adding a  traverse and electronic counter , but in the end I cut my losses and  settled for the Chinese unit which Im very happy with .

Totally understand, would love to get one of those units.

What type of transformers are you rewinding?
 
Chokes and transformers for tube gear will be my main focus ,
but I might try neve style EQ inductors also .
 
The finer the wire your working with the more precisely you need to chuck up the bobbin or former to get a quality result ,
Any kind of visible wobble on a shaft turned by hand translates into vibration at higher rpm , and a coil thats a mess.
I have a bunch of stuff on order via slow boat to help ,but until that arrives  I havent even applied power to the machine :-[
 
I've started to wind a few test coils up on the machine , resolution of the traverse mech is 0.02 mm per revolution ,but like CJ said smooth flow of the magnet wire off reel , over guides and rollers is key to a good wind , to that end I've added some bearing guided ceramic rollers to help iron out 'memory' off the supply reel , correct bend radius and break angles off the guides/rollers make all the difference  especially with finer wire grades which you need for tube work . 40awg triple build motor grade is the finest wire Ive dared use so far , of course winding tension vs diameter also needs to be figured into the equation. 
 
Schatten pickups do a coil winder ,comes in both kit and ready made form .

Its pretty easy to turn an old cordless drill into a pickup winder ,
You already have the chuck , you just need a proper mounting plate and a guide rail with adjustable stops , and a counter .

Some have gone to the trouble of making cnc controlled pickup winders , generally hand wound pickups will sound better because of a slight uneveness ,or scatter wind put onto the bobbin by the opperator , even wire lay might help you get some extra turns on if HOT is what your after .

I recently pulled a right angled dewalt drill from electronic waste , it really makes a very good base for a winding machine , minimal back lash in the gear box ,two speeds and variable control , you could easily incorporate the speed controler into a foot pedal , that leaves both hands free to guide the wire.
 

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Anybody have any suggestions for a good pickup winding machine? I mean one to purchase, not one to make myself. I know Stew Mac sells one, but the review for it are pretty poor.

Good pickups winding machines are pretty expensive, and are really only worth for someone building a lot of pickups for their own small business, it's not worth it if someone is doing a few pickups from time to time.

Mojotone sells an unit also for $650:

https://www.stewmac.com/luthier-too...kup-building/mojotone-pickup-winding-machine/
Like Tubetec said there's the Schatten DIY Kit:
https://guitartools-int.com/product/schatten-designs-build-your-own-pickup-winder-110-volt-cwm110/
But if you are doing something like 2 to 10 pickups you don't need any of this, you can just wind it by hand with a cheap Manual Winder like mine, less than $50, or a simple Drill like Tubetec posted.
I would do it with the cheap China manual winding, it's very relaxing.


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Anybody have any suggestions for a good pickup winding machine? I mean one to purchase, not one to make myself. I know Stew Mac sells one, but the review for it are pretty poor. I also know that Ohm Guitars makes the "Sidewinder," but their website doesn't appear to be working, and I have read that people have had problems ordering from them.

Really depends on how much you'd like to pay. For many years we've been using very similar to one of those:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/1832813205...5cbSjCahU+APCobnB1ysPS3bgQ/f|tkp:BFBM4LL5h9li
We bought it some 12 years ago and paid close to $2,500 plus some $250 shipping. Paid off within a couple first months. Right now the prices are down to some $500 with free shipping. Fully automated, with 999 programmed jobs, with computer controlled traverse stepper, adjustable winding width, all automatic, with adjustable wire tension, with by far more functions and controls you will ever need.

Best, M
 
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