new coil winder

[phil b]

Here's my new coil winder. It's origin is in Hugh's plans from his latest book. I added a small shelf to put a counter on board. The counter was purchased from a John Deere dealer for about 15 bux. 3 of the corners of the back "H" were rounded off so the 4th corner would swipe the counter arm. It allows me to concentrate on getting the coil wound tighter. The coils have turned out a lot smaller with the same # of windings.

[RobC]

Tell us more about the counter. I wouldn't mind checking it out at my John deere dealer.RobC

[wooferhound]

 I tried many different sizes & shapes of coils. Just cut 1/2 inch plywood to the size of the hole in the coils that I need and two larger pieces to hold the wire in. Bolt the 3 pieces together. It helps to cut some slits in the larger parts of this jig so you can get some string in there and tie it all together before unbolting it to remove the coil.

 Hand winding coils does not produce a very uniform wind, so I built an electric coil winder. Got an electric motor from an old Disco Spinner Light (15 rpm). Bought a Coupler for Threaded Rod. Drilled the threads halfway out, And epoxied it to the shaft of the motor. Now my plywood Coil Forms screw directly to the shaft of the motor. It's not any faster but it's easier and makes a much better wound coil. No Turn Counter yet, I have painted one edge of the Coil Form red and count it everytime it goes by. I made the coils with 125 turns and it took about 9 minutes each.

Sitting next to the motor in the picture is my jig for holding the coils in the Airgap of my dual rotor machine for testing.

[nothing to lose]

I like the counter idea.

 Look around for one, I have seen them cheap somewhere new.

As always any time you go to a dealer for anything you probably are

 paying a premium price for it,

And of course if your around the scrap yards you may find them too.

 I hadn't thought about any use for one and saw a few not long ago

on junk equipment when I was looking for motors. Now I wish I had got them.

Probably several for a buck at scrap value!

[picmacmillan]

i am real sur i seen counters like this at princess auto in ontaro anyways...guess i'll go look it up and see how much they were...good idea...i seen internetfred had a digital one the other day that said shwinn on it and it worked next to a little neo magnet..don't know what it was off, although he told me...take care ..pickster