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Pickup Winder...


nerosrevenge

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Well, I have just nearly finished construction of my winder for the pickups that I am making for my current build.

So I will start with the pics, and then the parts list:

Guitar%20Build%20Pickup%20Winder%20lo%20res.jpg

Additional images:

Right side...

Left side...

Bearing detail...

Reed switch...

Ok so the parts:

Motor - old sewing machine motor.

Shaft - 8mm (lucky find at Active Surplus, in Toronto)

Bearings - 8mm (recycled from a kids scooter wheel)

Counter - From an old photocopier (also from Active)

Most of you will get how it works but explain for those who don't.

The motor is controlled via the foot switch that came with the sewing machine. The shaft pulley is over sized to help slow down the rpm (that little motor sure can go!). There is a magnet mounted on the shaft pully which activates a reed switch mounted on the back of the unit. This supplies the counter with power on each revolution which in turn causes it to...um...count.

Thusfar I can get about 120-140 rpm out of it without the reed switch failing, which means I am looking at about 1 hour and 11 minutes to wind a 10k pickup, which I can live with.

That's it! I intend to hock a rheostat out of a stove and replace the foot switch with that for more accurate control.

Bye for now!

STV

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Cost was low.

I already had the wood laying around.

Motor - Free (sewing machine)

Shaft - $1.00

Bearings - ($2.50 scooter wheel included)

Counter - $3.00

Reed switch - $1.00

Wire - $1.00

Time to build - 2 hours

I thought of drawing up plans but there didn't seem to be much point, unless someone wants them of course. Just ask I'd be happy to provide them.

Cheers!

STV.

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1 hour and ten minutes? Ouch! :D

You'll be going blind feeding wire all this time and standing in the same position all the time.

I use a Red Lion CUB3 counter on my winder. I bought it used off ebay for about $10-15 dollars. I strongly suggest you get one. I can easily do 700 turns per minutes without the reed switch bogging down on me. At around 900-1000 RPM's it starts freaking out a bit. The Cub3 works on a N-cell battery so you don't have to worry about any wiring or anything.

BTW the counter looks fantastic. A super simple winder that looks really solid and fast to build.

Edited by Phil Mailloux
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Cost was low.

I already had the wood laying around.

Motor - Free (sewing machine)

Shaft - $1.00

Bearings - ($2.50 scooter wheel included)

Counter - $3.00

Reed switch - $1.00

Wire - $1.00

Time to build - 2 hours

I thought of drawing up plans but there didn't seem to be much point, unless someone wants them of course. Just ask I'd be happy to provide them.

Cheers!

STV.

thank you for the offer i would love the plans

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1 hour and ten minutes? Ouch! :D

You'll be going blind feeding wire all this time and standing in the same position all the time.

I use a Red Lion CUB3 counter on my winder. I bought it used off ebay for about $10-15 dollars. I strongly suggest you get one. I can easily do 700 turns per minutes without the reed switch bogging down on me. At around 900-1000 RPM's it starts freaking out a bit. The Cub3 works on a N-cell battery so you don't have to worry about any wiring or anything.

BTW the counter looks fantastic. A super simple winder that looks really solid and fast to build.

I am sure the counter could keep up. I think the problem is the magnet on the shaft pulley. It's not strong enough to trip the switch on a faster pass. I ditched the foot switch from the sewing machine and I am now using a sliding dimmer switch. This give me allot more accuracy over the speed so now I am up to 220 rpm (so 45 mins for 10k winds). I think I will leave it for now, since I am new to this whole winding thing. Once I am more comfortable with it, then I'll likely want to speed things up.

sb - I will get working on those plans for you as soon as I can. What format would you like? I can do them in Autocad or Sketchup.

Thanks,

STV.

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  • 2 weeks later...
Thusfar I can get about 120-140 rpm out of it without the reed switch failing, which means I am looking at about 1 hour and 11 minutes to wind a 10k pickup, which I can live with.

Hmmmm. I made a winder from a sewing machine motor once and ran the motor at near full speed. It ran pretty fast.

Maybe it's the big pulley you are using on the top? That will reduce the speed of the small motor pulley. The motor pulley is moving faster than the axle pulley. You need to reduce the size of the top pulley. Either make them the same size, or close to it. You can also make the motor pulley larger and the axle smaller to get more speed.

I have a Schatten winder (which I think was over priced, but it works well). It's gets a top speed of about 800 RPM, and I can wind a pickup in about 5 minutes.

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1 hour and ten minutes? Ouch! :D

You'll be going blind feeding wire all this time and standing in the same position all the time.

I use a Red Lion CUB3 counter on my winder. I bought it used off ebay for about $10-15 dollars. I strongly suggest you get one. I can easily do 700 turns per minutes without the reed switch bogging down on me. At around 900-1000 RPM's it starts freaking out a bit. The Cub3 works on a N-cell battery so you don't have to worry about any wiring or anything.

BTW the counter looks fantastic. A super simple winder that looks really solid and fast to build.

I am sure the counter could keep up. I think the problem is the magnet on the shaft pulley. It's not strong enough to trip the switch on a faster pass. I ditched the foot switch from the sewing machine and I am now using a sliding dimmer switch. This give me allot more accuracy over the speed so now I am up to 220 rpm (so 45 mins for 10k winds). I think I will leave it for now, since I am new to this whole winding thing. Once I am more comfortable with it, then I'll likely want to speed things up.

sb - I will get working on those plans for you as soon as I can. What format would you like? I can do them in Autocad or Sketchup.

Thanks,

STV.

I'm so sorry that I didn't reply to your question before----autocad would be great if your still up to it....sorry

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I always recommend using an industrial type inductive proximity switch. It can trigger in speeds up to 10000 rpm (yup that’s right). I know that for at fact as that is my current winders maximum speed. Something like this:

http://www.ifm.com/ifmus/web/ps!select1_10_10_20.html

It shouldn’t cost more than a 5-10 bucks at an electrical wholesaler or similar. Then you just countersink and screw a steel screw into the wheel and position the proximity switch at the edge of the wheel. Should also improve balance when you remover the bulky magnet. Don’t know why everybody spend so much time building nice winders and always use those lousy reed switches or mechanical micro switches when a decent switch cost that little.

Regarding winding time, I usually run my winder at slightly below 2000 rpm, meaning a Strat pickup will be done in a few minutes. And a set in under 20.

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I just bit the bullet and got the StewMac one (and i'm not one for spending money on StewMac stuff) but I built three winders and I wasn't happy with any of them. The one StewMac sells is made by www.schattendesign.com and is truely am amazing piece of work and is well worth the money they ask for it.

The counter is optical which means it won't mess up like a standard click counter will.

I burnt my click counter up on my 3rd design becuase the "hand drill" I was using spun too fast for it.

This design looks good and I know a ton of people have made thier own but Schatten's tool was just to easy to sink the cash into and it really works.

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I just bit the bullet and got the StewMac one (and i'm not one for spending money on StewMac stuff) but I built three winders and I wasn't happy with any of them. The one StewMac sells is made by www.schattendesign.com and is truely am amazing piece of work and is well worth the money they ask for it.

The counter is optical which means it won't mess up like a standard click counter will.

I burnt my click counter up on my 3rd design becuase the "hand drill" I was using spun too fast for it.

This design looks good and I know a ton of people have made thier own but Schatten's tool was just to easy to sink the cash into and it really works.

I have one. I think it's over priced, but you are paying for the hand work that went into making it.

On the plus side it works perfectly, and I can store it back in the box when I'm done, which is good, since I wind on the kitchen table! There's no room at the work shop for the winder at the moment.

I plan on making an automated winder soon...

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  • 16 years later...
On 11/5/2007 at 6:55 PM, SwedishLuthier said:

I always recommend using an industrial type inductive proximity switch. It can trigger in speeds up to 10000 rpm (yup that’s right). I know that for at fact as that is my current winders maximum speed. Something like this:

http://www.ifm.com/ifmus/web/ps!select1_10_10_20.html

It shouldn’t cost more than a 5-10 bucks at an electrical wholesaler or similar. Then you just countersink and screw a steel screw into the wheel and position the proximity switch at the edge of the wheel. Should also improve balance when you remover the bulky magnet. Don’t know why everybody spend so much time building nice winders and always use those lousy reed switches or mechanical micro switches when a decent switch cost that little.

 

Regarding winding time, I usually run my winder at slightly below 2000 rpm, meaning a Strat pickup will be done in a few minutes. And a set in under 20.

Thanks for the advice.  Is this what you mean and if so, what size do you use?  Also, do you not use a magnet but get the sensor very close to the screw?

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/115335128825?itmmeta=01HWTSZC5HBBG9E5KA41WW2QMG&hash=item1ada8266f9:g:8bIAAOSwNrViUS56&itmprp=enc%3AAQAJAAAA8AviJmALaN4vosyJ0l6h6QZkNxxXb6GjQW5hoqjCc%2FcbYRHPZrQwTYifuer9%2FHrdd%2B%2BawEG1YrboceTu0wAQzWv7zMyQNpUGV3VplPPLveabPLjqBSJkpAkrpho3NXG9QPqR3vT4MrNjaUTsyc8iMdy1FsJ8Ph5rT4FMyRA6a6AwnC673KpdEk5zT0XZiWfoBp%2BqXi8ACF8Pb0lG0D11WNK9WFzQiEEdRlvF1J3ljgG1VANvhsqq3Uu%2Fnl1d%2FQswy8a%2Fsji80CKp%2BDTwIaL8Rsqne6G6LRJY%2FWDnMSdRK4iOmzJ7WUa2Xe%2BTj9tnIP%2BTLg%3D%3D|tkp%3ABk9SR47D_dnmYw

 

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