Pickup Winder: She's Spinning

Well, today I put the finishing touches on the enclosure and the spindle for the custom pickup winder. She's a little dodgy - accurate woodwork has never been my forte - but she will server the purpose for which she's intended.

In the case that a fault develops, or I want to enhance its  functionality, the lid has been hinged to allow easy access, and I've installed a big fuck-off knob on the speed pot so that my sausage fingers can use it easily. I was also able to replace the existing forward/off/reverse switch on the motor controller with a much more enclosure friendly option. It seems that the switch just reverses the DC voltage across the motor.

So anyway, I'm pretty happy with how she's turned out. Here's my new toy in action - it's rivetting stuff...



All I need now are a few supplies. I'm waiting on a brass rod to make a wire guide on the right hand side just below the line of the spindle. I also need to pick up some wire and pickup kits so that I can get winding! My first aim is to get a set of hot strat pickups wound for my recent stratocaster build.

Pickup Winder: Power Supply & Counter

I little progress on the custom pickup winder today. I was able to install the electric motor into its mount, and also screw the magnetic switch into position above it. Thankfully, the mount seems to work very well and the motor is steady as a rock. Take that year 7 woodworking!!

Motor mount is sturdy and working well.

Motor and Magnetic Switch are mounted and ready to rock!

Over the weekend I was also able to glued some small pieces of wood in to the corner of the enclosure to create a bullpen for the 240V -> 12V power supply. With the glue dry, I was able to mount the power supply in its pen, and proceed to wire the 240V input into the end of an extension chord that I dismembered. The 240V is coming directly into the power supply without a fuse, so maybe I'll burn down my house first time out...

The power supply sitting in its bullpen away from fragile fingers

The dismembered extension chord providing 240V sans fuse.

To test the output voltage (24V) I wired it up to the power lugs of the counter. It worked! The counter lit up with 000000. I couldn't resist then hooking my magnetic switch up to the counter as well. Hmm no counting? WTF? Turns out you also need to supply a voltage to the switch so that the counter is actually receiving a signal with each blip. Doh - dunkopf! A couple more wires later though and I had the success I sought.

The counter is working nicely!

The power supply is now humming and the counter is counting quite happily as the magnet passes the magnetic switch! The next step is to get the electric motor controller connected to the 24V power and then its output lines to the electric motor to test the forward, backwards and speed controls. Fun, fun!

Pickup Winder: Electric Motor Mount

A little more progress today on the custom pickup winder. I cut the top off the enclosure to bring the height down to a half what I started with. It is looking much better now. The lower center of gravity will make the winder much more practical.

I also built the mount for the electric motor using two pieces joined by long bolts. I got the mount cut down to size, installed the securing bolts, and glued the bottom of the mount to the inside wall of the enclosure.

The two sections of the electric motor mount ready to install.

Gluing one half of the mount to the inside of the enclosure.

I also drilled a few holes in the back to let heat escape as I was too cheap to buy a prewired power supply. Unfortunately these holes have made the enclosure look like a rabbit hutch, but at least they are on the back where I (hopefully) wont be seeing them!

Holes for heat. The enclosure now looks like a rabbit hutch.

Over the weekend I should be able to get the components wired up to test that I understand the confusing Chinese labelling scheme and the way the bits and bobs fit together. With this done, it will be a relatively simple matter of finishing the woodworking so the enclosure is ready to accept them. I still have the control face and the lid of the enclosure to build, so that should keep me busy for a few more days at least!

Pickup Winder: Building a Custom Winder

Not many people know this, but building your own pickup winder is both cheap and easy. After endlessly reading and re-reading Gavin Bramley's thread on the Build Your Own Guitar forum concerning building your own pickup winder, I resolved that this was something that I absolutely, positively had to do!

Electrical components - It's a very simple mechanism really.

I ordered all the parts from aliexpress some months ago and have been waiting for a suitable time to get started on it. In terms of internal parts, all you need is:

• 240V AC -> 24V DC power supply
• 24V electric motor
• 24V electric motor controller with reverse
• Electric counter
• magnetic switch and magnet

All in all these parts set me back approximately $50USD.

I still have a couple of parts to source before I can complete the project, but that is a little way off:

• 240V wall socket wire (i'll probably butcher a cheap extension chord)
• internal hookup wire
• brackets to mount the spindle to the pickup loom
• a guide for the wire as it winds

I am also thinking of incorporating an Arduino circuit to measure the resistance of the pickup as it is being wound. I know that it's quite easy to build a resistance meter with Arduino (I have all the parts), but the only trick will be a mechanism to actually keep contact with the end of the wire that first attaches to the pickup and is spinning with the spool. I've still to find a solution to this problem.

Anyway, today I (finally) got in and started to build an enclosure. My base dimensions look good, (I made sure I could accommodate the power supply and the controller easily on the floor of the enclosure) but the height looks way off. It looks way too top heavy to me - the way it is now it will shake itself to pieces when the motor gets going.

First steps in building a plywood enclosure.

I reckon I'll take the height down by half before I put the rest together. I've built a motor holder as Gav suggested in his thread (two pieces of oak with a hole through the center) and am just waiting for the glue to dry before adding some adjustment bolts and installing it on the inside wall.

Once I've done this I can get a mock up of the wiring completed. Hopefully I won't electrocute myself in the process! Stay tuned for more progress in the coming days!