David, I made a winder, not following his specific plans, but using some of the design, materials, etc. as it seemed best. I plan to make a second one that will be a different design at some point. I have used the winder to wind a few shopmade P90 bobbins and have both commercial Strat and P90 bobbins on hand. My problem is time to do all the interesting things I want to do. If I'm doing pickups, I'm not doing guitars, and so on. And I do have a realworld career and a family. Enough whining - this is about winding...
Regarding the counter, I had a crude counter adapted from a cassette player, which I recently changed over to a bicycle speedometer/odometer ($17 USD). This uses a magnet as a count sensor and seems like it will work well.
Have you looked at the websites by Stephen Kersting (SK Guitar Specialties), AMPGE and the Pickup Winders Forum? Lots of good info there.
I will be out of town for a few days and may not be able to get online, so if you reply, be a little patient. PM would be fine as well. Dan