Hi, This is John. It's my automatic winder that Tyler is talking about here. I want to thank you Peter for giving me the chance to answer some questions about the winder.
My worries: "- To complex with all the friction drive and friction gears"
It's actually a very simple design. Other than the reel , there are only three moving parts. The motor, the mainshaft, and the wheel that drives the reel.
"- Tensioner + dancer will probably only work for lower RPM settings"
I've been winding my test coils at 1,200 rpm. to keep my test data consistent. The best thing about the dancer is that you can actually see your tension. The tensioner is adjustable on the fly and it can be calibrated by watching the deflection of the dancer. It controls the tension so that it is more equal between the ends, and the long surfaces of the bobbin. Because of this the coils would be less microphonic. This might be one of the big merits of machine winding.
"- The traverse mechanism will wear out"
What will wear out? There's only 1 moving part besides the cable I made from a guitar string. "- The traverse mechanism will need extremely precise placement and adjustment to be able to accommodate all different bobbin sizes and most of all, all flange thicknesses."
The slider on the traverse arm is the wire guide. It's infinitely adjustable between 1/8-11/16" I use a system of alignment pins that allow me to return the platform to exactly the same spot. For exact reference on the wire guide I measure the distance from the end of the transom arm to the guide itself. Bulletproof, and fast.
"The complexity to get the traverse to travel so that the movement changes direction a tiny bit inside of each flange is too steep. You will spend more time setting the machine up than actually winding, at least in the beginning."
The initial setup isn't too difficult. It only takes a few minutes, but once you have the setup It is very quick.
"This at least apply to if you are shooting for a winder that will wind several types of coils. And if I understand the mechanism correctly, adjusting the fishing reel back and forth. Moving it will change the position of the traverse vs the coil laterally (sideways). This in turn will mean that if you have the machine perfectly dialed in and would like to know the difference in sound between different TPLs you will need to first move the fishing reel, then re-adjust the "trow" of the traverse."
You do misunderstand the mechanism. When the reel is moved the only thing that changes is the traverse rate/TPL
"And it also means that you cannot simply mark he base with "this place on the traverse for standard HB bobbin" and similar as that will differ with different TPLs."
I drill holes in the platform and insert pins to re-align the base perfectly. Nothing changes. "- I'm a grumpy old man" I'm Batman "My suggestion if going down this path" "- Direct drive. With a motor with sufficient power you can always lower the speed with a speed control so why limit yourself. With all those friction gears and stuff you will build in a set of possible future problem/issue components (friction drives WILL wear out)"
I built the whole thing in a few hours, and for about $25. Anything that wears out would be easy to replace. There's been little sign of any deterioration of components "- Skip the dancer. I run my winder considerably faster without one. It's called over-engineering, a thing I often immerse myself into..."
I really like the dancer for reasons I stated earlier. I made it from a guitar string. A bronze .056 I used the same string for the traverse cable. "- Get backup parts for the traverse"
What's going to wear out?
"- Rework the traverse system altogether"
ouch, that's my baby. You should take a closer look. Maybe You're missing something. After all, The TPL is fully adjustable without a belt, gear, or pulley, and with only one moving part. The traverse length is fully adjustable, by sliding the wire guide on the arm. The tensioner is reliable, and adjustable on the fly. It's to my best knowledge unique in these aspects for a homebuilt mechanical winder. Literally. "All in all I don't aim to slam John or his machine, but I think that "less is more" is something that need to be applied to a project like this."
Peter, I welcome the criticism. If everyone looked at the world through my eye's, We'd be in a mess. I live by "less is more", and I don't think I could have made it with fewer parts. Tell me if you see something I could omit, dancer excluded.
"With my hand fed winder running at 2500 rpm I think I can wind the coils faster than with a auto traverse machine like John's. The problem is, IMHO, That Jason Lollar, in his book, described and built a machine with auto traverse instead of a more simple machine. After reading that book a lot of aspiring winder thought that an auto traverse was mandatory."
I've been hand winding pickups for many years. This is the first automatic machine I've built. I'm still prototyping on it. I plan eventually to replace the reel with a cam driven traverse. The trick is making it out of cheap common stuff.
Tyler, You can always build a hand winder, and add a traverse later if you accommodate for it. Here's a picture of my mechanical winder. Friction drive of course. I used a reed switch with a $2 pedometer for the counter. It counts every tenth turn from the friction driven decade wheel. No problem with the reed bouncing. Until now the only winder I've ever used.