Home built PU winder

[reddogbass]

I posed a question in another thread, and was asked to post some pics of my winder. Being a tinkerer, I wanted to attempt pickup winding, so the first order of business was to build a winder.

I've been wanting to do it for a long time so when the likely parts source showed up, I did it. The parts were originally an old Bell and Howell 16mm movie projector. Here's the pile of parts after the projector was stripped down.

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And here is the finished project-

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The base is plywood with an MDF top, covered in laminate. The unit has the reversing switch from the projector. It has a two-speed belt drive pulley (flat belt) on the motor and main shaft, to which the arbor is mounted. I have also wired in an electronic speed control.

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The counter is a calculator triggered by a magnet and a reed relay. The magnet is mounted on the ring gear (under the white worm gear.) The reason for this is because of the response time of the reed switch. When mounted on the main shaft it spun too fast to register when the RPMs exceeded about 100.

The ring gear is 1:15 ratio so spins fifteen times slower. Now it registers fine, except you have to put "15" into the calculator, rather than "1." So the turn count is accurate to fifteen turns. Not a big deal when you are dealing with 5000+ turns.

The calculator idea is not original. I got it from a guy in Australia who builds his own winders. Basically what you do is solder two wires to the "equal" terminals inside the calculator. They are easy to find- right under the "=" button.

To make it count you just turn it on and punch in "1 +". Every time the wires make contact, or the switch is activated by the magnet, the number increases by one. In my case (I do "15 +") it increases by fifteen.

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This the arbor end. The PU holder is removable from the disc, so different ones can be substituted, depending on the pick type being wound. This whole assembly is made from lexan sheet.

[magicguitar]

WOW!!! Really clever. I am always impressed when someone takes a piece of junk and re-works it into something else that is very usable. Nice job.

[reddogbass]

This is a view of the speed control, with the reversing switch being the chrome know on the front.

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The wire is fed off the spool- through a tensioner- and is routed through the teflon tube to the business end. The reason for this is to keep it compact and self contained, and not having a spool of wire somewhere behind you, or on the floor.

The tubing is a control cable sheathing from an RC airplane. Really smooth and slick inside.

It is recommended that the spool be 3-4 feet from the wire guide. I only have about a foot from the spool to the tensioner- it works great, and does not twist or break the wire.

Once the wire exits the tube it is routed under a weighted movable guide, and over the guide before the wire is fed onto the bobbin. This is an attempt at tensioning the wire evenly all around the bobbin. Normally the ends are tighter, and a bit loose on the flat spots on the bobbin. This seems to work quite well.

Maybe this is a better view of that guide thing-

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And the finished PUs mounted-

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All in all this was a fun project- really fun!

About the PUs themselves- This was my first attempt at winding. I am really pleased. They sound good, and are really quiet, especially for not being potted.

I wanted to split the coils of the bridge PU to approximate the single coil tone. They say it can't be done (get that sound) but I think I disagree. To my ear at least the bridge in the single coil mode sounds very "tele-like."

The neck PU is a P-90 type, but with a homemade bobbin so it would fit a standard HB mounting ring. It sounds very good too! I'm not real fond of the tone with both pups together, but I'm working on it.

The specs on these first pickups are as follows-

bridge HB is 6k in the single coil mode, and the other coil at 3.75K get's it to 9.75K in the HB mode.

The neck PU is 8.5K. All magnets are Alnico5.

Now that I can get wire onto a bobbin it's time to learn how different specs, and style, magnet types, etc, affect the tone. I have a whole lot to learn. My hats are off the the "real" pickup winders!

It took me some time to get all this working properly, but I'm totally happy. It's too much fun!

[JasonRobert]

that really is good!

How are you feeding the pickup wire to the pickup? I have always experienced breaks.

[Mark Davis]

Your one smart fella!

Good work.

[reddogbass]

How are you feeding the pickup wire to the pickup? I have always experienced breaks.

I'm feeding it by hand, controlling the layers manually. I was going to build a traverser setup off the "ring" gear. But this works quite well so I may not.

Initially I did break some wire. It happened when I tried to get the speed up too high, and lost my concentration. Sitting there watching the spinning bobbin has a way of putting you in a trance. That's when it happened.

I slowed it down a bit, and making sure the bobbin edges were smooth (actually quite round) eliminated the breakage. I don't know the RPMs but it takes about ten minutes to wind 5000 turns.

This rig has an added feature to help with breakage. There's a slight mis-alignment between the motor shaft and the arbor. If it gets going a little too fast the belt comes off. I control the final speed by resting my hand on the (white) worm gear. Rather than break the wire, it just stops.

It did take a couple of winds though to get it complete without breakage. Now I know the machine, and have the tensions set just right. It's all in the practice.

[Amby]

Very well thought out - congratulations.

[jclark]

Color me completely jealous. I've always admired people who can pick up a bunch of parts and make something out of them. From a movie projector to a pickup winder is a great transformation.