GuitarGuy Posted June 4, 2005 Report Share Posted June 4, 2005 I just finished building a pickup winder from Technic Lego. I know what you're thinkin' it wont work, not strong enough etc etc etc. This one works great! The counter is from the kellogs step counters and it counts the turns of the crank, not the actual bobbin spindle. Reason being, the steppers must have a min wait time before it can be tripped; and the spindle is spinning too fast. The ratio is 3:1 so for every turn on the crank it turns 3 on the spindle. The shuttle is run from a worm gear and it is geared down so the spindle runs 9 revs per transverse. Im going to wrap a few pickups with it to work out a few bugs then I'll write a tutorial for making one. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stalefish Posted June 4, 2005 Report Share Posted June 4, 2005 You know, I had the same idea to build a pickup winder outta my old Lego.. Difference was that mine would have been motorised.. Didn't get 'round to building it, though, 'cause I found that the Technic motor I had was dead.. I don't suppose that counter was very costly? (Kellog's kinda speaks for itself) That was the other problem I encountered; where to get a cheap counter.. Looks good!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GuitarGuy Posted June 4, 2005 Author Report Share Posted June 4, 2005 (edited) You know, I had the same idea to build a pickup winder outta my old Lego.. Difference was that mine would have been motorised.. Didn't get 'round to building it, though, 'cause I found that the Technic motor I had was dead.. I don't suppose that counter was very costly? (Kellog's kinda speaks for itself) That was the other problem I encountered; where to get a cheap counter.. Looks good!! ← Free in a box of froot loops. I ate the froot loops too. I have a lego motor but the turn on and turn off is the problem, It's geared really low so the on and offf is a really abrupt stop. Abrupt and 42awg wire dont mix well Edited June 4, 2005 by GuitarGuy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
psw Posted June 4, 2005 Report Share Posted June 4, 2005 Nice.... I visited Australia's Maton Guitar's Factory as a Kid...a friend was doing work experience there...and they were still using a winder made from Mechanno and had done so for twenty+ years. At G+L Guitars Leo was still using an original Fender designed winder, hand fed and running from a sewing machine motor! I've built a "real" winder with electronic winding but I've never gotten the auto transversing part of it completed...how did you do that, GuitarGuy??? I was trying to use a little hobby geared motor (not a stepper) but the thing always had trouble stopping and reversing up without too much delay...got any ideas? Also...here's another cheap counter that works really well. I made a hand winder from a film projector hand winder. For a counter what you do is get a cheap "dime store" (A$2 shop) calculator. Carefully connect thin wires to the two contacts of the equals (=) sign. Set the wires up so that they are pushed together with each revolution...you can use a reed switch and magnet if you want to get sophisticated, or some other type of momentary switch or just some springy contacts...improvise something with a bit of putty to trigger it or something. Anyway...to operate simply type in 1 + 1. Each time the = sign is pushed it will add 1 and count up. You could also count down by typing in your target...say 6000...then -1. It will then count down towards zero. Just be aware that some more "expensive" calculators (A$3) may try to go to sleep and loose the count if you stop for any period of time so write down where you're up to so you know where to get back to if this is the situation....type in your last count 499 + 1 and it will continue to count as before. Generally if your contacts don't bounce around too much the calculator can keep up with all but the most vigorous hand turned winding and slow motorised work even if the LCD display can't (it may look like a blur and even blank or flickering while turning) but when you stop or slow down the count should be pretty accurate. If you want to go fully electronic with you're counting I know a great counter kit but you have to get them to recalibrate their programed chip when you order it to deal with fast speeds of most powered counters. Anyway...hope that helps or gives people some ideas Good Work GuitarGuy psw Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GuitarGuy Posted June 4, 2005 Author Report Share Posted June 4, 2005 Thats a great idea. Ill look into the calculator because the stepper is just too slow at counting. As far as the shuttle goes its just a pushrod on a rotating arm. Im going to write a tutorial on it in a couple days so then you'll get the idea of what im talking about. But this does also pause at the end of the stroke but its not that bad. If been thinking of speeding up the shuttle. The production of pickups has been so good that I've hired a full-time employee. He's a hard worker but doesn't have much of a personality. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
psw Posted June 4, 2005 Report Share Posted June 4, 2005 perhaps that's the missing element in my machine Still he doesn't look fast enough. My OTT winder has a superfast counter and a tachometer and's accurate to over 3000 rpm...of course, that's just silly. Still shows what you can do with some imagination and a few sewing machine parts and MDF!!!! pete Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GregP Posted June 4, 2005 Report Share Posted June 4, 2005 Awesome. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thedoctor Posted June 4, 2005 Report Share Posted June 4, 2005 Some little kid is REALLY pissed! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
psw Posted June 4, 2005 Report Share Posted June 4, 2005 OR.... He's quite rightly...living in a lego sweatshop with a dickless lego supervisor who wont listen or speak to him making the best damn genuine hand wound, scatterwinding tone machines at a fraction of the cost and 10x the quality...all to custom customer specs!!!! For no wages!!!! Oh...you got to give the guy a name BTW...how about see-more or lazy larry-d Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
haggardguy Posted June 4, 2005 Report Share Posted June 4, 2005 (edited) That lego guy is my new hero. Edited June 4, 2005 by haggardguy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thedoctor Posted June 4, 2005 Report Share Posted June 4, 2005 That is either Dizzy Turner or Ed Roman. Looks a bit like Bill Clinton. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
psw Posted June 4, 2005 Report Share Posted June 4, 2005 I like the way he's got his hand upon the lever You got to get him automated so he moves as the coil winds from one side to the other...it'll keep you amused to you develop RSI in your right hand from turning the handle 10,000 times a PUp! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
erikbojerik Posted June 5, 2005 Report Share Posted June 5, 2005 That's Mr. Bill... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GuitarGuy Posted June 5, 2005 Author Report Share Posted June 5, 2005 Actually its Luke Skywalker. But I believe Bill is his middle name. Bill the pickup winding guy. i've since added the motor out of pure curiosity and surprisingly it dosent break the wire. Im also playing with the gearing. Right now its 3:1 so to get 9000 winds you only have to turn 3000. im thinking of kicking it up to 6:1. Im curious if the wire will take it. as of right now it takes 15 min to turn 8000 winds Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stalefish Posted June 5, 2005 Report Share Posted June 5, 2005 as of right now it takes 15 min to turn 8000 winds ← That's not too shabby.. I was expecting it to run a lot longer to get the needed coils.. The lil' Lego dude rocks, by the way.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matt Posted June 5, 2005 Report Share Posted June 5, 2005 Now this is a cool Idea!!! I might just have to make one of these myself as Im about to wind my own as well!! How long approx does it take you to wind a coil on that thing? Matt Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
marksound Posted June 5, 2005 Report Share Posted June 5, 2005 Now this is a cool Idea!!! I might just have to make one of these myself as Im about to wind my own as well!! How long approx does it take you to wind a coil on that thing? Matt ← as of right now it takes 15 min to turn 8000 winds Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paul Marossy Posted June 5, 2005 Report Share Posted June 5, 2005 Too cool! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ansil Posted June 5, 2005 Report Share Posted June 5, 2005 didnt' jon fisher have a schematic up for a switch debouncer on his sight when he tqalked about winding pickups and output transformers. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
psw Posted June 5, 2005 Report Share Posted June 5, 2005 perhaps that's the missing element in my machine Still he doesn't look fast enough. My OTT winder has a superfast counter and a tachometer and's accurate to over 3000 rpm...of course, that's just silly. Still shows what you can do with some imagination and a few sewing machine parts and MDF!!!! pete ← You don't want too fast...as I said, mine's just silly, you cant really go this fast without having trouble, especially if you're hand feeding the wire. The idea of my winder is that it will wind two bobbins at once in opposite directions and that these coils will be identical. But to do that you need two spools of wire and I'd really have to sort the automatic traversing system or hire two leggo guys to supervise the operation! Anyway...15mins, 5mins....who cares given the result and cost savings pete Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GuitarGuy Posted June 6, 2005 Author Report Share Posted June 6, 2005 (edited) Finished a pickup!! Thought I'd rewind a cheap tele bridge pickup I had. #44 wire 8360 turns (meant to be 8000 but I was having so much fun) Measures out at 9.5K took about 20 min to fully wind. and heres a video of the winder in action. It only has a tele neck pickup on it for demo purposes. ( I couldnt film and wind at the same time) You'll notice I also have a 200ohm pot to soften the start and stop. Just put this in your browser window i cant figure out how to likn it in the forum here http://www.airos-guitars.com/images/lego pickup winder/lego winder.wmv Edited June 6, 2005 by GuitarGuy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GuitarGuy Posted June 6, 2005 Author Report Share Posted June 6, 2005 I just watched the video to make sure it worked and this thing reminds me of somthing outa charlie and the chocolate factory Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GregP Posted June 6, 2005 Report Share Posted June 6, 2005 Simply awesome. Makes the average man want to start winding his own pickups! Greg Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
psw Posted June 6, 2005 Report Share Posted June 6, 2005 Now if only someone could work out an easy way to make good looking bobbins! BTW...how are you mounting the pickups to the winding machine...double sided tape or something... Nice pickup by the way...let us in on how it performs pete Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GuitarGuy Posted June 6, 2005 Author Report Share Posted June 6, 2005 Now if only someone could work out an easy way to make good looking bobbins! BTW...how are you mounting the pickups to the winding machine...double sided tape or something... Nice pickup by the way...let us in on how it performs pete ← Walmart Double stick, $1.49 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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