DIY pickup winding machine.

WezV

I'm making this partly as a test for the laser cutter, partly to use that box full of old broken pickups and maybe even design a few of my own for 1 off builds.

I've wound a few before, but on some very basic drill based winders with very mixed results.

Parts required.

Box- I'm using laser cut 6mm ply.
Motor - Geared 12v DC 1000 RPM motor
Speed control - DC motor Speed control, preferably with a CW/CCW switch
Counter- 5 digit LCD counter with magnetic sensor
12v DC power supply and plug
On/off switch (optional)
Guide rail- 5mm stainless steel rod
Shaft collars - 5mm
Flanged motor shaft collar-6mm

Thats £50 worth of parts off ebay, and 2 sheets of A3 6mm ply

I'm doing things in the wrong order and designed and cut a box before all the parts arrived


The good news is the box fits together well, i just need to bevel teh edges on the angled piece.  it should be very strong once glued. 

I included a couple of motor supports in the file.   I will bolt the motor to the side panel, but have the option of adding more support if needed, depending on how bad vibration is



Parts are starting to turn up, i just need a motor and LCD counter now.





However, I didn't account for the depth of this speed controller.  I chose it as it has the CW/CCW switch on it, but it is also very deep and may foul the motor in it's current position.  or I may dismantle it and move some parts around

I'm also not sure the LCD counter is best placed for visibility, so I may shuffle things around a bit and re-cut a couple of panels once all the parts are here  

The on/off switch on the front isn't really required as the speed control does the same.   I just added it to prevent me accidently putting the machine in reverse when i want to turn it off


Also I set the machine to engrave the letters rather than cut, but missed some of the center bits and it cut them out.  I can live with that

axisus

Fascinating!

GuyBoden

Fantastic, very impressive.

Funkfingers

If the positioning of the internal parts doesn't work out, place the empty box somewhere accessible in your kitchen. Time how long it takes for a cat to climb inside it for a snooze.

timhulio

Very cool. I built one a few years ago when I was planning to get into guitar building properly, but only made a few pickups. How do you intend to count revolutions? I had a hall effect sensor, but it didn't work fast enough to count every revolution so was only approximate.

WezV

Funkfingers said:

If the positioning of the internal parts doesn't work out, place the empty box somewhere accessible in your kitchen. Time how long it takes for a cat to climb inside it for a snooze.

i don't think the cats will fit, although I assume another batch of kittens will arrive at some point

timhulio said:

Very cool. I built one a few years ago when I was planning to get into guitar building properly, but only made a few pickups. How do you intend to count revolutions? I had a hall effect sensor, but it didn't work fast enough to count every revolution so was only approximate.

the LCD display comes with a magnet and magnetic sensor.  I'm basically copying this sort of thing

WezV

i've bevelled the back edges of the face plate


and it now first nicely


Most of it is glued together now, I've left the top 2 plates loose for now in case i need to redesign the layout. 

DartmoorHedgehog

Nice project - laser cutter's working well then (I'm quite envious of that).







(of course cool people use Lego and a broken pedometer )

Funkfingers

DartmoorHedgehog said:

a broken pedometer

What reading would that give for Prince Andrew?

WezV

Small update

The shaft collars arrived for the guide rail


I designed it with the shaft going all the way through the machine, and the collars hold it in place both sides. It should be sturdy,  but more importantly, nice and square to the motor and bobbin plate.

The two on the shaft get set to the height of the pickup, similar to this

WezV

still waiting on a motor.  i'm hoping it is here in the next few days

WezV

motor turned up


everything fits, but spacing could be better so it isn't so cramped together


with a humbucker bobbin stuck on it


and a couple of thousand turns done  as a test 



the guides work perfectly.  I was worried they would be difficult to set-up correctly, but it took about 10 turns by hand to be sure they were correct.

There is a little wobble on the bobbin holder at the moment as it doesn't fit the shaft perfectly. I think I will recut those plates at some point.

It goes about halfway round the speed dial before the counter starts to crap out, but works well up to that point

WezV

Thought I would try a rewind on a pickup from an old Satellite guitar.  One of the worse things I have ever heard and it died a long time ago.

The wind went well, but I then broke a winding removing it from the machine and killed it.


Other than that, the winder did really well.  I got 5000 turns on without issue, even though the old bobbin is pretty distorted in places.



Think I will make a sturdier bobbin to fit this case then remake it

impmann

Those Satellite pickups are turd  - I'll be interested to see if you can make something out of it that sounds OK.

WezV

I don't hold out much hope, but it's fun to practice a few things with - i will get to that in a second.

First, eliminating wobble.

I missed an important detail about the motor in my original design and put the mounting screws in the wrong  place.  So today i cut a template for the screw positions and drilled them out


i also tried something different with the pickup plate to try and get it firmer, but ultimately this led to more wobble instead of less


whilst playing with the laser i cut these bits of 6 and 3mm ply to act as the centre of some bobbins, as well as some 1.7mm black acrylic flatwork not shown


here is the new bobbin for the satellite pickup along with the old one for comparison

It's an exact fit for the metal base and also bigger in all dimension so i can get more winds on.  I got 4500 on the original clear bobbin. 

looks a bit messy with the tape I used and wire position, but I got 7500 winds on the new bobbin with plenty room to spare.  it measure 5.92k.  I swapped out the short original pole piece screws for some humbucker ones too.  This gives room to play with.  I can either  stick a magnet to the bottom like the original, or position them between baseplate and coil more like a p-90



I also did another bobbin to fit around a bar magnet and wound that into a pickup too, not expecting it to sound great or anything, just playing really. 

 I wound that to 8000 turns, or at least I thought I did.  It seemed to go pretty quickly.   The magnetic sensor on the counter was picking up the bar magnet and counting half revolutions    it measures 3.7k







So I think I have 2 things left to do. I want to move the counter sensor well out the way of  the pickups to prevent the issue above, that will need a longer mounting plate to go with it

WezV

that's the plan for the box if anyone wants it.  This version has the sensor underneath the motor and further out, and 3 pickup mounting plates at the top for spares.  The magnet hole for the sensor should be well out the way of most pickups

WezV

Strat pickup rewind



slight bit of flaring on the top plate, so I need to work on tension, but successful other than that

WezV

i've potted those wound so far, just left over candle wax and a double boiler - along with a close eye on temperature.  They smell like an old hippy!



I think I will put my old beater back together for some tests

WezV

i've added a flanged shaft collar to the motor and moved the sensor.  also made a thicker and longer bobbin holder

 

normula1

Watching this with lots of interest. I've fancied making one for ages.... trying to persuade my son to 3D print me "chassis"

WezV

I don't think there will be much more to show now.

I may work on something to help with wire tension, and maybe make a few more plates to hold different pickups in different ways.