Oh, and as an additional note, I ordered the Kahler tremolo bridge this morning. It's being shipped from Nevada, so it should be here this week.
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Leafenbacker
- Thread starter mapleglo
- Start date
You cannot begin to imagine the incredible joy I feel whenever you update this thread.
I really love this project.
It brings me great happiness.
I really love this project.
It brings me great happiness.
When it's done, don't forget to make the accompanying case (although this a Lemmy six string):
What is this? Lemmy guitar? It has six stings....
Build looks cool too!
[Q UOTE=mellowinman;15648878]You cannot begin to imagine the incredible joy I feel whenever you update this thread.
I really love this project.
It brings me great happiness.[/QUOTE]
I'll second this.
I really love this project.
It brings me great happiness.[/QUOTE]
I'll second this.
I think that is just about the nicest thing anyone has ever said to me. Thank you for your kind words
Thank you, I'm very much enjoying this build as well
So this is a picture of the winding rig all set to go.
Home Depot did not have the drill bit stops I'm using on that guide bar, but Lowes up the street did. I set up everything, including the calculator, which counts the windings. Full of confidence and excitement, I set the counter to zero, and slowly hit the speed pedal on the sewing machine.
It was working!
Up until 218 winds, when the wire, which is not quite the thickness of a human hair, caught on a callus on my finger, and broke.
The good news is I think if I wear thin cotton gloves, this may actually work. The bad news is, now I have to unwind 218 turns from the bobbin by hand, as I can't figure out how to make the sewing machine run backward.
I had a very productive day, so I'm going to call it quits for now, wait until my husband gets home from work, and go to our local watering hole for a few drinks.
Home Depot did not have the drill bit stops I'm using on that guide bar, but Lowes up the street did. I set up everything, including the calculator, which counts the windings. Full of confidence and excitement, I set the counter to zero, and slowly hit the speed pedal on the sewing machine.
It was working!
Up until 218 winds, when the wire, which is not quite the thickness of a human hair, caught on a callus on my finger, and broke.
The good news is I think if I wear thin cotton gloves, this may actually work. The bad news is, now I have to unwind 218 turns from the bobbin by hand, as I can't figure out how to make the sewing machine run backward.
I had a very productive day, so I'm going to call it quits for now, wait until my husband gets home from work, and go to our local watering hole for a few drinks.
I made a second attempt yesterday at winding the bobbin, and was actually able to get up to 8500 winds:
Looks like a pickup
Measures about 10.5 kohms:
I still have to solder the coil ends to the eyelets, and solder on a lead. Started doing that yesterday but ran out of time.
And in other news, Kahler sent me a shipping confirmation, so I should receive the bridge in a couple of days.
Looks like a pickup
Measures about 10.5 kohms:
I still have to solder the coil ends to the eyelets, and solder on a lead. Started doing that yesterday but ran out of time.
And in other news, Kahler sent me a shipping confirmation, so I should receive the bridge in a couple of days.
So this is a picture of the winding rig all set to go.
The bad news is, now I have to unwind 218 turns from the bobbin by hand, as I can't figure out how to make the sewing machine run backward.
VERY ingenious!! Bravo!!
All sewing machines have a way to make it work in reverse. They trick is, they are all a bit different.
It may be one of the knobs on the machine has to be rotated and held in position. Or, usually, there is a lever that you press and, again, hold in position, to sew backwards.
If you'd like to take some closeup pics of the machine and its various knobs and lever, I'll be happy to help you figure out how to make yours go in reverse, should you ever need to do that again.
Thanks, I just ended up cutting the wire with a scissors. I'm not sure why I thought I'd have to actually unwind it, as I couldn't use that short amount of wire anyway. However, running the machine in reverse might come in handy if I ever decide to make humbuckers. I'll have to take a closer look.
If you look at how I have the calculator positioned, the equal button is right under the sewing machines needle holder. That moves up and down for each revolution of the hand wheel - the part I have the bobbin attached to. So for every revolution, that needle holder hits the equal button and adds 1 to the calculator.
Thank you. I wish I could take credit for it, but pretty much the entire setup I saw in one form or another through my search on the internet for home grown pickup winders. Some people used electronic counters, which are triggered with a microswitch being hit with the needle holder, or magnetically, as the hand wheel passes the sensor. Those are pretty inexpensive.
Overall, the pickup winder cost just about $60.00 - $40.00 for the sewing machine at the thrift store, and $20.00 in other parts from Lowes or Home Depot. I had the calculator and the duct tape used to "mount" it.
Hmmm, my wife has a sewing machine I have never seen her use. I wonder if she'd notice. 
Hmmm, my wife has a sewing machine I have never seen her use. I wonder if she'd notice.
I didn't make any significant modifications to the sewing machine. I removed the needle, and used double stick tape to attach the mount for the bobbin. Completely reversible.
