Nosmo's PU Winder

[nosmo]

I was in the shower the other day and I said to myself, "Self" I said, "with all the talk about maybe having to wind your own pickup for the 2013 challenge, I wonder why nobody has done a winder build thread?” I mean really, I know there are guys here that could do it. I know Scatterlee had a good thread a while ago, but come on...surely there has been some technological advancement since the invention of the spinning reel! Motor City Tele had a nice bit on his sewing machine winder, but that was 2010. (I think the sewing machine was circa 1890) I bet there are lots of sewing machine winder threads, but I don't have a sewing machine.

Well, if nobody else will do it I guess I will. Maybe this will give someone an idea of how to build a PU winder. (Not that I know how)

First you need a plan. I had a plan. I had 18 different plans. See, this is where it would really have helped me if someone else had done this first. One of the early plans involved using an o-ring as a belt drive. I just wanted to slow down the 1800rpm cheapy motor I had laying around by using different size wheels. Now if somebody, like maybe Barncaster, had done a thread and said all that crap would take up too much room in the container, I would have thrown out that idea sooner.

Then there’s the problem of a counter. If Herb (adirondak5) had suggested a Red Lion CUB digital counter, it would have saved me days & days of research. Then there’s speed control. I bet I could have learned lots about that from R Stratenstein or jimdkc, but NOOOooo, where are you guys when I need you? So after painstaking research, I decided to go with Pulse Width Modulation. Sounds high tech doesn’t it? You can buy PWM DC motor controllers on eBay pretty cheap if you don’t mind waiting for it to get here from China. I found a dimmer at Amazon that I hope will work (it worked in my pre-assembly tests, but it may melt by the time a pickup is completely wound).

My best plans usually start by wasting a great deal of time drawing stuff on the computer. I think this is rev. 28 or so.

Looks good on paper, but I’ll need some parts.

Gear Motor (10-1) 600rpm 12VDC 62mA - 17.95 Jameco
Wall Transformer 120/12VDC 1000mA - 09.95 Jameco
PWM Dimming Controller 12VDC 8A - 09.38 Amazon
Red Lion CUB3LR Miniature Digital Counter - 15.00 eBay (not shown)
Pushbutton Switch SPST momentary - 02.00 Radio Shack
Toggle Switch DPDT - 03.99 Radio Shack
Magnetic Reed Switch SPST NO - 00.99 Jameco
Size M (2.1mm x 5.5mm) DC Plug - 03.19 Radio Shack

I had to design a box for the winder. I would have thought someone would have come up with a cool container for a winder, like...I don't know...maybe an ammo can or something. You guys are letting me down. I had drawings and everything for the box, but it transformed several times and in the end, I just kind of threw it together. As a matter of fact – I’m still throwing it together.

 

[nosmo]

I really struggled to figure out a way to mount the motor. But then I thought, “What would Barncaster do?” Well, I bet he would have made a bracket type thingy out of a block of wood and clamped it together with a bolt. Well heck, I can do that! Now the only bolts I could find that were long enough & skinny enough were wall anchors.

They’re not really that big. That’s a close up.

I mounted the mount to one of the sides. I’m not really sure which side because it wasn’t put together when I mounted the mount. I could have said I attached the mount, but that doesn’t sound as cool. Oh yeah, before I did that I drilled a big hole in the side that kind of lined up with where the motor would go.

And another hole pretty much at random because I had the drill press going and I had all these drill bits…

I guess I’ll fill that little hole with this 1/4” bolt. Maybe I can use it for something later.

That might be the PU mount too. We’ll just have to see how straight it spins. The stupid shaft on the motor is 6mm and wouldn’t you know it – I don’t own any metric bits. Now if anybody had bothered to write a thread, and mgdesigns had replied saying that you can buy 6mm bits at Woodcraft, I probably would have ordered one. Since that didn’t happed I did a quick search of all the tool & hardware places around here and found that Sears carries metric bits. Who knew? I wonder if I can take it back after I wear it out. So far I’ve only drilled 1 hole, so it will most likely last quite a while. By the way mg, I hope your shoulder recovers quickly. (I’m just guessing that you had surgery – I didn’t read that anywhere.)

Oh yeah, that little magnet in the PU mount is part of the counter system. Now if Herb had told Barncaster about a certain reed switch for the counter, and I had actually caught it, I wouldn’t have bought this 99 cent switch.

But since I have it, I guess I have to figure out how to use it.

I soldered some wire to each end. Seemed like a good place to start.

Then I put some heat shrink over it because it’s glass. And fragile. And tiny.

And out of focus.

Drilled some more holes & threaded it through.

Is that neat or what? This is going to be great!

Connected it to the counter, put the PU mount on and spun it by hand. Counts great! As a matter of fact, it counts so well that it counts 2 turns for every rotation. Talk about an overachiever. Turns out you have to mount the switch 90 degrees to the magnet. I guess it makes contact at each end of the switch as the magnet passes. No big deal – I like drilling holes. Maybe I can use one of the ones I already drilled if I make it bigger. Or maybe I’ll just leave them for ventilation. On the other hand, if I leave it the way it is, I should be able to put 8 or 9 thousand wraps on a pickup in half the time. Hummmm…

 

[trev333]

I hope someone makes a pickup winder out of 10 speed bicycle parts....

or one hooked up to a stationary exercise bike.... with the counter on the bars....

wind PU's and get fit at the same time... ... genuine leg wound PU's...

 

[nosmo]

Time to do some electrickery.

I think I’ll start with the speed control for the motor. The PWM dimmer that I bought will take up quite a bit of real estate in my box the way it is. A little dismantling and Bob’s your uncle, all the important parts will fit in the palm of your hand. Well, the whole thing could fit in the palm of your hand, but you know what I mean.

Can’t just slap it in there. Gonna have to make some stand-offs.

They look pretty good considering they are made out of cut off coax insulation.

And here it is mounted.

The switch in the upper right is a momentary SPST pushbutton for the reset on the counter. The counter I bought is a Red Lion Controls CUB3LR. The ‘L’ is for lithium battery. The ‘R’ is for remote reset. I have no idea what CUB stands for. The switch in the middle right is a DTDP toggle to reverse the motor direction. The little plug in the lower right is a DC connector for power from the transformer.

I wired everything (almost) on the front plate of the box. Here’s most of the wiring harness, removed from the front plate.

Still need to connect the motor leads to the toggle switch and the reed switch to the counter.

Nothing to do now but finish the box.

I hate finishing!

 

[nosmo]

I hope someone makes a pickup winder out of 10 speed bicycle parts....

or one hooked up to a stationary exercise bike.... with the counter on the bars....

wind PU's and get fit at the same time... ... genuine leg wound PU's...

I like that idea. All except the peddling the bike part. On second thought - I hate that idea.

 

[Glen Smith]

Great, another tutorial! You know I am counting on you Nosmo.

 

[Barncaster]

Hey Nosmo,

It's looking great! The whole PWM thing has me intrigued. How do you come up with such brilliant ideas? Hook that puppy up! If the PWM works well the whole mess just may fit in the first gen Star Trek lunch box after all.... Hmmmmmmm.

Rob

 

[Jupiter]

Hey, if you're gonna build a pickup winder, you should at least make a thread about it so some other guys could learn how.

 

[hemingway]

Come on, admit it. This is all a delaying tactic to get out of refinishing Nosmo 2.

 

[guitarbuilder]

The redlion cub sellers on ebay are probably wondering what has happened to spur sales. Nice thread.

 

[adirondak5]

Hey nosmo , since you hate finishing work when you are done with the winder send it along with the bass to me , I'll give it a finish
But really , yea , umm , send it.
Nice thread , love seeing all the different winder versions.

 

[Tidepoolbay]

Nice work! Thank you for posting this.

 

[nosmo]

Great, another tutorial! You know I am counting on you Nosmo.

Lots of ways to skin a cat.

Hey Nosmo,

It's looking great! The whole PWM thing has me intrigued. How do you come up with such brilliant ideas? Hook that puppy up! If the PWM works well the whole mess just may fit in the first gen Star Trek lunch box after all.... Hmmmmmmm.

Rob

And I'm thinkin' you really need another winder

Hey, if you're gonna build a pickup winder, you should at least make a thread about it so some other guys could learn how.

That's what I said. You just can't count on some of the people around here.

Come on, admit it. This is all a delaying tactic to get out of refinishing Nosmo 2.

No - I'm still finishing, it's just taking forever! (and I'm easily distracted)

The redlion cub sellers on ebay are probably wondering what has happened to spur sales. Nice thread.

I'm glad I got mine before the prices go up.

Hey nosmo , since you hate finishing work when you are done with the winder send it along with the bass to me , I'll give it a finish
But really , yea , umm , send it.
Nice thread , love seeing all the different winder versions.

I actually thought about sending my builds to someone like you that could put on an awesome finish, but I have this feeling that would be the last time I saw them. What different winder versions? I'm only building one!

Nice work! Thank you for posting this.

Somebody had too

 

[adirondak5]

I actually thought about sending my builds to someone like you that could put on an awesome finish, but I have this feeling that would be the last time I saw them.

What kind of guy do you think I am , I promise I would post pictures

 

[nosmo]

I'm sure you would Herb.

Speaking of pictures...

See, I really am building a box.

Can you tell I'm kind of into the wood binding thing. I'm sure it's just another fad that will wear off pretty soon.

I actually used glue. I thought the tape would look tacky if I left it on.

Looks like I should maybe clean off my work bench. Don't even have room for the whole box. Too many projects - not enough focus

 

[Barncaster]

Hey Nosmo,

I like the tape. It's kind of got that mummy thing going on....

Rob

 

[nosmo]

Hey Nosmo,

I like the tape. It's kind of got that mummy thing going on....

Rob

That's my anti-idiot tape. One of the best tools in my shop

 

[Barncaster]

Man can you send a few rolls of that to me? I've got an infestation here......

 

[adirondak5]

Man can you send a few rolls of that to me? I've got an infestation here......

Ha , first the bass , then the winder , now the tape , nosmo's not gonna have anything left

 

[R. Stratenstein]

I want his camera! Great shots of the project, nosmo. And great project, too. You ended up with what I think is a newer version of the counter I got. Does it bother you that is just sits there, showing 0 all the time and you can't turn it off?

Loving the innovations here. Maybe having the boat sink with my motor on it, coming from China is not all bad. By the time I get a motor, I'll have scarfed up so many good ideas I can go into business selling bulletproof pickup winders. For instance, I like the bolt-with-collars for the wire guide. Great idea, N. !

I think that box would look outstanding with a Caribburst!!