Official Luthiers Forum!

To all:

Ok, I want to find a way to wind my own pickups without buying a 400 dollar machine. On Stew Mac they offered a way to rig up a drill. This seems well divised, but is there a way to count rotations? I was going to calculate it by rotations per minute, but I am assuming the drill will slow down as the battery life drains. Is there a digital counter of some kind I could rig up?

Also, anyone know a good site that will reference different winding techniques, and explains how the number of winds will increase or decrease ohm output?

_________________
-Joel

I'm all for networking, so email me:

jraffety84@gmail.com

There are a variety of digital counters on eBay, although I'm also still looking for a suitable one - not much of a genius when it comes to electronics boxes. Seems like a reed switch rigged to an electronic counter would be the way to go.

I've got an old sewing machine motor (with foot pedal speed control) I picked up for about 10 bucks that I'll be fitting with a flywheel and a couter setup for pickup winding.

Short track:

Buy a $6.00 mechanical switch counter from a production tool supply, or Mcmaster, and mount it such a way that the bobbin smacks it with each rotation. Downside - if you spin the coil too fast, you are likely to miss a certain number of counts because of limitation of the spring loaded switch.

Better way, buy a counter from the same places that counts with voltage spike, i.e. 9-12 volts. Run this through a spring loaded contact switch that the bobbin hits with each rotation - you will not miss a count, because those little switches are fast.

Other than that, the drill works OK, but don't expect to get perfect results. You either spin way too slow to get any good progress done, or ballpark the number of rotations per minute at a faster speed- not so great however you look at it.

I am building a new basic winder, when I am done, I will show pictures (but that could be a little while )

Stephen

_________________
www.ziegenfussguitars.com

I have a few incarnations of more complicated winders, but the one I still use is just a drill chuck on a shaft driven by a sewing machine motor. I have a number of counters, but really don't use them. In production it would be handy, but between getting a feel for it and checking periodically with a meter, I haven't found the motivation to actually install a counter on this one.

_________________
Eschew obfuscation, espouse elucidation.

Ya, here is the link to a great creation thats cheap. This is an idea from Stew Mac, since their pickup winder is like 400 dollars. I will most likely rig one up like this, but where to put the counter? Hmmm......

http://www.stewmac.com/freeinfo/Electro ... -5967.html

_________________
-Joel

I'm all for networking, so email me:

jraffety84@gmail.com

Back in the day i rewound a pickup i had that had broke windings. I was about 17 and didn't have a clue to what i was doing. I did it by hand and eye. I didn't count the windings I just wound to where it looked like other pickups. I actually sealed it with a floor wax my mom had then rapped the windings with cloth electrical tape. It did work, though it was week sounding compared other humbuckers. I Idid this because I read an article where eddie Van Halen talked about doing this. One day i think I might break down and buy a good winder or try to build a proper one and do my own pickup but the right way this time.

http://europa.spaceports.com/~fishbake/ ... /count.htm

http://europa.spaceports.com/~fishbake/ ... pickup.htm

this guy is very smart and has a lot of other cool projects on his site. this link is hime making a counter out of a dollarstore calculator. He then rigs up a drill and puts the pickup on it and winds it correctly.

_________________
" Blues is a low down achin chill, if you ain't never had it, I hope you never will."

Robert Johnson

Instead of counting rotations use the length. It is easier to figure. I rigged my metal lathe for winding pickups.

_________________
John Hall
blues creek guitars
Authorized CF Martin Repair
Co President of ASIA
You Don't know what you don't know until you know it

How do you do this? I have never heard of anyone measuring length.

somebody once mentioned using and old turntable. put it on 45rpm watch the clock and then you can figure exactly how many revolutions you get onto your pickup. they said it took a while though, like three hours.

Could you weigh the bare pickup frame, then CAREFULLY wind on 100 turns, weigh again, do the math, and then let the drill (or other) driving motor fly, weighing periodically? I realize that the turns would get progressively longer and slightly heavier, but what are the standards for number of turns? Aren't pickup guys more interested in resistance?

Dan

_________________
Dan
http://www.acme-archtops.com

I use a turntable, however I have the luxury of 78 RPM! When I first started using it I just used time to "count" the number of turns. Later I added a bicycle speedometer to verify the count. Time was very very accurate. That is, my holding the wire didn't slow down the turntable.

It's a very Zen experience.

A homemade pickup winder is one of the projects I've been contemplating for a while, though it will be some time before - hell, if - I ever get around to this.

I plan to modify an old hand-cranked grinding wheel. If you're a cheapskate (like me) with a mania for rummage/estate/garage/tag sales (like me ... hey, finding things like Mitutoyo digital calipers priced at $5.00 really makes your day,) you can pick these up for next to nothing. 60 years ago every guy had one of these in his basement or garage, they're everywhere.

The gear reduction is approximately 11:1, so about 700 cranks will complete the winding in ten minutes or less, with infinite & immediate control over the speed.

Using an inductive prox and a digital counter I sort of acquired at my old job, and making the rest from scraps and hardware I have sitting around, the whole thing will cost me less than ten bucks... and a whole bunch of labor.

I have a question about winding your own pick ups. Why do most people do it? Is it for the cost savings or more because they feel they can create a better mousetrap?

Don't get me wrong I'm not against it by any means. I just can't think of a reason why I would want to wind my own other then cost. The parts and wire are pretty inexpensive so I can see the cost savings part of the equation.

Other then that, I just don't feel I can create something to stand up with the heavy hitters in the industry. I also havn't researched winding my own so that could be why right there.

I build my own pickups since 5 or 6 years. First I just wanted to try this, just for fun and the pleasure of discovering another aspect of my work... Thinking that if famous pickups company sell this at a so expensive price there should be some reasons... but quickly I saw that it was not so hard to build, the difficulties come more from the elboration of a pickup, but the building itself is easy.
I'm not a pickup manufacturer, after lot of "prototypes" I only buid one model, the one I developed and like for my guitars, I get the sound I exactly want (it is not better or not, it is the one that I like, a kind of P90's like), the look that I want and... and at a far away cheaper price

_________________
http://www.cherubin-luthier.fr
https://www.facebook.com/FranckCherubinLuthier

Nice looking pups