Lets see your DIY pickup winders

[rumblinbass]

Hey hopkins

were you happy with how the grinder worked?
I started lookin into a DIY pickup winder a couple years ago and ended up with a couple sewing machines collecting dust. Started thinking about it again recently and have found a lot of new ideas. Thought about the grinder as well and looked at one that I have at work and didn't think it would work to well. The problem was that once it's turned off it keeps spinning, and spinning, and spinning,...
I really like the lathe idea. Have also found another winder with DC motors that I really liked.
Lots of good ideas but I have a couple sewing machine motors I need to use.

 

[Tedward]

Here's mine with a couple of coils in the works.

 

[Chainsaw Willie]

Here's mine with a couple of coils in the works.

Hey, is that a Harbor Freight router speed control on the lower left? What kind of motor is hiding behind that calculator?

 

[Tedward]

Chainsaw Willie you are right about the router speed control.
The motor is from an old sewing machine.

Tedward

 

[tdogg]

I built one out of an old sewing machine too. I have been using the foot control from the sewing machine so far. It is actually kind of nice having both hands free. Any tips on adding a rev counter?

 

[Tim1]

Looking at doing this, but can anyone tell me how you mount the pickup to the machine without drilling a hole in the pickup?

 

[Hopkins]

Looking at doing this, but can anyone tell me how you mount the pickup to the machine without drilling a hole in the pickup?

I replaced the crude rectangle blocks with 3/4" MDF cut out with a hole saw, and glued some neodymium magnets to hold the bobbins in place. I did a test to see how fast I could spin the winder before the bobbin went flying across the room, it was faster than my counter could keep up with.

 

[Technicality]

Here's mine:

Its probably not the prettiest you have ever seen.

The spool of wire was hanging on a broom handle out in the corridor to even out the tension. An arduino/microswitch/bolt taped to the chuck was counting the turns and feeding the data out to the netbook. I originally tried using an optical mouse scrollwheel, but it kept slipping and losing count.

I can definitely see the advantages of having a footswitch. Its surprising how exhausting holding down a button for 5 minutes whilst carefully feeding wire onto a bobbin and simultaneously keeping an eye on a counter can be. In the end I rigged up a lever so I could control the drill speed with a lighter touch.