DIY transformer winder (pics)

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Manifold

Member
Joined
Mar 11, 2005
Messages
21
Below are some pics of a transformer winder that I made. We did everything from scratch. We even made the set collars from a piece of 1/2" cold roll steel. Right now it's set up to accept two different sizes of bobbins, but we threaded the rod so we can make a different sized bobbin holder when we need to. The bushings on the sides are made of UHMW and the main rod is 3/8" cold roll steel so it will fit inside a hand drill and that has come in very handy. The little plastic piece on the right is a trigger for an optical sensor for the counter which isn't shown. I plan to put a motor on the main spindle and also make an auto traverse, but that will be later. It works for now.

tw1.jpg

tw2.jpg

tw3.jpg
 
A man of my heart!

Very nice job.:thumb:

If you can figure out a way to have the bobbin slip under a pre determined load, you will break less wire.

I made a wire tensioner out of a small c clamp and some coreprene pad. ( a rubber like material that does not compress over time)

What is UHMW?
 
Thanks for the kind words. UHMW is a type of polyethylene that is very slippery. Goto www.mcmaster.com and type in UHMW in the seach field and it will come up with a bunch of different polyethylene types and talks a little about each one. They said it's called the "poor man's teflon".

Thanks for the advice on the wire tensioner. That was also an idea that I was going to work on, but just haven't got around to it. There just aren't enough hours in a day. Maybe I should work on that.
 
Radio controlled toy-cars do have interesting kinds of clutch and brake konzepts. Maybe you'll find a proper solution in a model making store to realise your tension control.

Cheers Patr!ck
 
nice :grin:
now all you need to do is motorize it and put a turns counter on it
maybe just a contact and a digital counter. or a magnet/counter like you would use for bicycle speedometer.
later
ts
 
[quote author="ToobieSnack"]nice :grin:
now all you need to do is motorize it and put a turns counter on it
maybe just a contact and a digital counter. or a magnet/counter like you would use for bicycle speedometer.
later
ts[/quote]

This is clever:
http://europa.spaceports.com/~fishbake/counter/count.htm

I followed a link from here:
http://www.ncable.com.au/~tony.r/transformer_Page_3.html
 
If you can figure out a way to have the bobbin slip under a pre determined load, you will break less wire

you can make a cluth on the lever with two disks spring and felt between.
one disk attached to the shaft, the other to the handle wich spins free on the axle.
the spring push the handle to the other disk and by adjusting the force of the nut in the end of the axle you can regulate the friction, the felt come between the disk (could be other stuff too).
i saw this kind of device when i was working in film projecting on a film roller.
 
You are aproaching it wrong.
You control the tension of the wire.
All of the winders have a wire tension jig.
Do not make the winder slip.

But most proto guys just use their hands or two blocks
of wood felt inside hinge on one end butterfly nut to tighten
the wood half together.
 
I have a little Atlas armature lathe I wind my coils on. I found by using a nylon stocking in place of the rubber V belt it would slip nicely under tension.
For really fine wire a slip clutch with the felt as described above would probably be more suitable.

The advantage of having the slippage is if the wire starts winding wrong you can easily stop it by tightening up on the wire with your fingers. This way the wire doesn't unravel or break, and you can even pull it back off the bobbin a little ways to correct whatever went wrong without having to shut down the motor.
 
Adrian, there are three different issues here;

One is if your wire get's hung up on something for whatever reason, you want the bobbin to slip so the 0.002 wire does not break right in the middle of a 7,000 turn sec.

The other issue is you want constant tension for a uniform layer when winding many layers of small wire.

The third issue is you want a tensioner device so you do not have to use your hand. This way you can drink beer and wind at the same time.
 
Thanks for all of the input guys. I will definitely take some of those suggestions into consideration. I really like this guy's site and designs too.
http://designed2wind.alphalink.com.au/possibilities.html

I want to try and use some of his ideas for an autotraverse. His machines look great though.

I also like CJ's third issue that he wrote. I don't want to have to hold tension on the wire when i could be drinking. :grin:
 
Wow! Cool site.

That guy's trials and tribulations with stepper motors lead me to believe that a precision screw for traversing would save a lot of hassles with circuits, computers, and what not.
You could always use a computer to control the screw, which would probably be a lot easier than writing code for a stepper motor.
 
yeah, that site is great. I wish he would provide just a bit more info, but I can understand where he is coming from at the same time. He just wants to inspire people, not have people make exact clones of his stuff.

Anyway, I understand what you are saying about using a lead screw and a computer, but I think it could be done so much simpler. Here is my idea.

Get a stepper motor controller card like this one
http://www.electronickits.com/kit/complete/motor/ck1405.htm

This way if you ever wanted to go to a computer controlled operation you could, but you don't have to. This card has an input for step and an input for direction. Now if you get an encoder wheel and put it on the main spindle with your bobbin, then have this encoder wheel trigger an optical sensor which is sent to the step input, evertime the main shaft moves a certain amount, the traverse will also move a certain amount. Of course you would have to calculate up how far 1 turn of the main spindle would make the traverse move, but that wouldn't be that tough. Now no matter how fast the main spindle turns, the traverse will follow right along. Then you can also put limit switches in for the direction. You may have to add another circuit with digital latches so when it hits one switch it stays on until it hits the other switch. Seems like it would work, but if you see anything that I might have overlooked, I'd love to know.
 
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