Well done. I really like this physical design layout with the magnetic tensioner. For this use I think it's probably better than the ukcnc version. Although I admit I would go ahead and use the servo motor over the counter and direct programming of the controller vs gcode. But then I'm also winding a little heavier gauge wide at 26-28 AWG, in an orthocyclic pattern 14 layers deep on a rectangular bobbin, for which there are really no off-the-shelf designs available for less than about $10k.
Chris, thank you so much for sharing all of this information, and the results of all of your experiments, "blind alley" trys, and a lot of hard work and thought that led up to your "final" finished machine. Having the software is an extra-special bonus. This is a tremendous project - thanks for sharing all of this with us.
Wow, a mouth full. Been waiting because I built a winder and it works fine but got sick of wire breaks and fixes. Got the Mojo but worse than fingers. Eh, gave it a shot . Liked the tensioner idea but unless I embarked on a business building guitars like you I don't see this now. However, I applaud your ingenuity and ability. Thanks for your perseverance
Thanks for putting this out there. I watched the whole video even though I don’t own a computer (other than a smartphone) and this winder looks really fun to use
Great news Chris My dad has been waiting for this for a while .. so glad the software is with it I’ll be purchasing the package as soon as it is available . Cheers buddy you are a legend
I’m happy to start the community/user group if people would use it. I think that is something that is needed for a project like this. Hopefully, from that user group ideas can grow and blossom. I tried to put a link to a Facebook group in comments earlier. I assume Chris deleted it. No worries if so, I get that I’m just a random guy that seems a little over eager about this project. If there are better people to start that group, great. But I do think a user group would be useful.
I understand that you are putting this out there as is as a true "Do It Yourself" set of plans and don't really have tie to answer questions. I am absolutely a complete DIY guy and won't need any technical support (I'm also an IT guy so am well rounded to take on this project). My only question is, and I'm sure I could sort this out after buying the plans, can I possibly use some or all of the parts from an exisiting winder (Schatten Model B in my case) in this build?
You could keep the Schatten winder intact and use it as is. Then you would use the plans to set up the traverse and the tensioner. The software would be used to write the g-code which controls the traverse. You will have to know the exact rpm of the Schatten in order to generate an accurate g-code file.
This series has been great whether or not any particular viewer buys the plans. It is such an impressive project and even more impressive that you have documented different stages of development and published the videos on UA-cam. DId you give up on the silicone pad and go back to double-sided tape? I see you kept the tensioner and the mini-lathe.
It would be nice if I could convert this concept to simply use my existing CNC machine which already has a spindle and traverse. A1/8" shank bit which is capable of holding the bobbin would be the only thing needed, as we could raise and lower the bobbin itself by the z axis control if the source of the wire held a specific point with a jig that maintained tension and threaded the wire through the fixed position. I'd DIY that project. Alternatively, the CNC machine can operate as a traverse by having that same jig ride the table on the x axis and feed to a fixed independent pickup winder. Your hard work is in the software that generates the G code. Ultimately I'd want to do this as time and cost efficiently as possible so as to justify this over just buying a pickup winder (and Stewmac sells a $300 kit which might address the DIYer's needs to avoid building a winder from scratch). Don't get underpaid for developing that software! I appreciate your open source approach, but so might an existing boutique pickup maker who would like to program their hand-scatter into a G-code.
@@HighlineGuitars well, I looked it up, and some people are saying up to 3000 rpm is a good speed for pickup winding, while my tiny, and likely to be upgraded, but accurate and reliable CNC has a manual spindle speed control on a slider from 0-10000 rpm. I think the key here would be stability more than actual spindle speed given the 1/8" shank isn't intended to carry a 3" long bobbin holder. If metal work was my thing I might try and make it, maybe by modifying something that already exists.... I'm not stealing your idea, as my mind always comes up with stuff that I never do, but taking advantage of the precision of an existing CNC machine seems like a good idea.
@@michaelmenkes8085 I always encourage people to steal ideas. In truth, you can't own an idea especially if it involves components that were invented by other people who hold the patents. Your idea has me thinking of something similar.
@@HighlineGuitars like I said I appreciate your open source approach. I’m thinking of some ideas to stabilize a bobbin spin base for CNC using a spring loaded bottom. Funny how none of the commercial hobby pickup winders have an oscillating spindle to scatter the wind.
Cool project Chris! I've built CNCs so I'm sure I can handle this one! Thank you for spending the time to put this awesome package together. The only question I currently have is where do you buy your bulk pickup supplies?
Can this machine accommodate winding directly on a magnet (like a lipstick tube pickup) rather than on a bobbin? I imagine there might need to be some mounting differences.
HI great video ,i want to make a CNC winder for winding crystal radio coils and i undertsand the principles but i do not understand how that yellow tensioner works ? would really appreciate any info on that and how it is setup to actually operate ?
Believe it or not, the part that I’m having the biggest issue with is the acrylic bobbin plate. I don’t have a CNC machine to cut the acrylic. I tried 3D printing a disc, but it has a slight wobble, which would throw off the travel of the bobbin in relation to the wire being fed into it. I looked up quotes online, but they were completely ridiculous. Almost $400 to cut the plate out of black acrylic! That seems ludicrous, since I can buy a 12x12, 1/4” sheet for around $10. I thought about aluminum, but seems that might be too heavy. I don’t think I could cut it out by hand and have it balanced at all. Anyone have any suggestions on how I could cut it?
Chris... looking forward to this build. May I ask how do you determine wire gauge? is it in the software or do I use another calculation and just enter those final numbers.
I didn’t see this posted on the video. I’m a software engineer/mathematician, whatever. Would you be interested in open sourcing the software? I could help out and I’m sure plenty others would love to as well. Cheers either way - I’ll probably build one.
I may be ignorant, but I don't see the point. None of the benefits of open source interest me. If someone wants to modify the code to meet their requirements, they can open the program in a Python editor and change it to their hearts content.
@@HighlineGuitars I didn’t realize it was a python source file. I assumed it was a compiled language. The benefits beyond would be license stuff and the potential to have more people work on it. I haven’t read the source though.
Hi, Chris. Bought the plans, and have downloaded them. Just a quick question, don't know if this is the proper forum or not but... After running a couple of "dry run" g-code output files at "no scatter" setting, varying only the spindle speed, the code shows the same feedrate for both spindle speeds, F20. I'm not sure what the units are for this parameter - the X axis feedrate units on the grbl sheet are in mm/minute. Does this flow thru into the g-code output or is it somehow converted to other units by the program? When I calculate out the movement per turn using mm/min, it comes out to a fraction of the wire diameter at any reasonable spindle speed. In any case, the pickup coils I've seen wound with this system really look great. My rig is based on a desktop mini lathe, which has a pretty robust motor control, and the chuck allows me to switch out different bobbin holders easily, so what I'm considering is building only the controller, counter and traverse part and adapting it to my lathe, which would be a killer setup. Thanks for all your efforts in doing this, developing it from scratch must have been quite an undertaking. And also for making it widely available at a reasonable cost instead of hoarding what you have learned!
It's not the Arduino code that's the issue. It's the Python code where things get complicated. And it's really not complicated, but it would be time consuming.
Hi Chris, I bought the package. Is it possible to have the software in mm instead of in inch. It’s more usable in Europe. Keep up the good work. Best regards, Marc
the mm to inches conversion is 25.4... if the software was open source, it'd be easy to add that feature. I recall Chris mentioned that he'd consider making it available but I don't know if that ever happened.
Has anyone else opened UGS and not have $30, $31, $32 in the default settings for grbl? It is like I do not have grbl v1.1. Edit: Got all the files. I uninstalled Ardunio IDE and grbl, then reinstalled and the files were there. 😁
Nothing I've heard so far says anything but attention to detail. I really like this.
Well done. I really like this physical design layout with the magnetic tensioner. For this use I think it's probably better than the ukcnc version.
Although I admit I would go ahead and use the servo motor over the counter and direct programming of the controller vs gcode. But then I'm also winding a little heavier gauge wide at 26-28 AWG, in an orthocyclic pattern 14 layers deep on a rectangular bobbin, for which there are really no off-the-shelf designs available for less than about $10k.
Chris, thank you so much for sharing all of this information, and the results of all of your experiments, "blind alley" trys, and a lot of hard work and thought that led up to your "final" finished machine. Having the software is an extra-special bonus. This is a tremendous project - thanks for sharing all of this with us.
Chris I've held off building the #5 waiting for this announcement!! Thank you for your hard work and I'm glad I waited!! 😁😁
Wow, a mouth full. Been waiting because I built a winder and it works fine but got sick of wire breaks and fixes. Got the Mojo but worse than fingers. Eh, gave it a shot . Liked the tensioner idea but unless I embarked on a business building guitars like you I don't see this now. However, I applaud your ingenuity and ability. Thanks for your perseverance
Thank you for your hard work, Chris. It is a fascinating project! I hope it will be the beginning of a broad development community.
Just bought the plans. Thanks for this. I am a bit over winding by hand.
Thanks for putting this out there. I watched the whole video even though I don’t own a computer (other than a smartphone) and this winder looks really fun to use
Great news Chris
My dad has been waiting for this for a while .. so glad the software is with it
I’ll be purchasing the package as soon as it is available .
Cheers buddy you are a legend
Thanks. I'm all in on this project
I’m happy to start the community/user group if people would use it. I think that is something that is needed for a project like this. Hopefully, from that user group ideas can grow and blossom. I tried to put a link to a Facebook group in comments earlier. I assume Chris deleted it. No worries if so, I get that I’m just a random guy that seems a little over eager about this project. If there are better people to start that group, great. But I do think a user group would be useful.
Was a Facebook group or user group created?
@@dannoceti I made a Facebook group, no one in it yet because I haven’t been able to post it. But it’s ready if people want to search for it on FB
@@MET3 okay, I searched for “cnc pickup winder” and “eguitar plans cnc pickup winder” but had trouble finding anything.
@@dannoceti try highline guitars cnc winder
@@MET3 found it, thx!
I understand that you are putting this out there as is as a true "Do It Yourself" set of plans and don't really have tie to answer questions. I am absolutely a complete DIY guy and won't need any technical support (I'm also an IT guy so am well rounded to take on this project). My only question is, and I'm sure I could sort this out after buying the plans, can I possibly use some or all of the parts from an exisiting winder (Schatten Model B in my case) in this build?
You could keep the Schatten winder intact and use it as is. Then you would use the plans to set up the traverse and the tensioner. The software would be used to write the g-code which controls the traverse. You will have to know the exact rpm of the Schatten in order to generate an accurate g-code file.
Thank you so much for replying so quickly!
This series has been great whether or not any particular viewer buys the plans. It is such an impressive project and even more impressive that you have documented different stages of development and published the videos on UA-cam. DId you give up on the silicone pad and go back to double-sided tape? I see you kept the tensioner and the mini-lathe.
Awesome! been waiting for the plans
It would be nice if I could convert this concept to simply use my existing CNC machine which already has a spindle and traverse. A1/8" shank bit which is capable of holding the bobbin would be the only thing needed, as we could raise and lower the bobbin itself by the z axis control if the source of the wire held a specific point with a jig that maintained tension and threaded the wire through the fixed position. I'd DIY that project. Alternatively, the CNC machine can operate as a traverse by having that same jig ride the table on the x axis and feed to a fixed independent pickup winder. Your hard work is in the software that generates the G code. Ultimately I'd want to do this as time and cost efficiently as possible so as to justify this over just buying a pickup winder (and Stewmac sells a $300 kit which might address the DIYer's needs to avoid building a winder from scratch). Don't get underpaid for developing that software! I appreciate your open source approach, but so might an existing boutique pickup maker who would like to program their hand-scatter into a G-code.
Your spindle will spin way too fast.
@@HighlineGuitars shame really. there has to be a way to take more complete control of the CNC spindle speed in software.
@@HighlineGuitars well, I looked it up, and some people are saying up to 3000 rpm is a good speed for pickup winding, while my tiny, and likely to be upgraded, but accurate and reliable CNC has a manual spindle speed control on a slider from 0-10000 rpm. I think the key here would be stability more than actual spindle speed given the 1/8" shank isn't intended to carry a 3" long bobbin holder. If metal work was my thing I might try and make it, maybe by modifying something that already exists....
I'm not stealing your idea, as my mind always comes up with stuff that I never do, but taking advantage of the precision of an existing CNC machine seems like a good idea.
@@michaelmenkes8085 I always encourage people to steal ideas. In truth, you can't own an idea especially if it involves components that were invented by other people who hold the patents. Your idea has me thinking of something similar.
@@HighlineGuitars like I said I appreciate your open source approach. I’m thinking of some ideas to stabilize a bobbin spin base for CNC using a spring loaded bottom. Funny how none of the commercial hobby pickup winders have an oscillating spindle to scatter the wind.
Cool project Chris! I've built CNCs so I'm sure I can handle this one! Thank you for spending the time to put this awesome package together. The only question I currently have is where do you buy your bulk pickup supplies?
I get most of my pickup parts from CE Distribution and Addiction-FX.
@@HighlineGuitars thanks for the info!
Just Fantastic!
Can this machine accommodate winding directly on a magnet (like a lipstick tube pickup) rather than on a bobbin? I imagine there might need to be some mounting differences.
HI great video ,i want to make a CNC winder for winding crystal radio coils and i undertsand the principles but i do not understand how that yellow tensioner works ? would really appreciate any info on that and how it is setup to actually operate ?
Sweet
Now I can have two sets of plans: Lollar's and yours!
Believe it or not, the part that I’m having the biggest issue with is the acrylic bobbin plate. I don’t have a CNC machine to cut the acrylic. I tried 3D printing a disc, but it has a slight wobble, which would throw off the travel of the bobbin in relation to the wire being fed into it. I looked up quotes online, but they were completely ridiculous. Almost $400 to cut the plate out of black acrylic! That seems ludicrous, since I can buy a 12x12, 1/4” sheet for around $10. I thought about aluminum, but seems that might be too heavy. I don’t think I could cut it out by hand and have it balanced at all. Anyone have any suggestions on how I could cut it?
Chris... looking forward to this build. May I ask how do you determine wire gauge? is it in the software or do I use another calculation and just enter those final numbers.
45awg at 100rpm...job done....now he wants another same single coil.
I didn’t see this posted on the video. I’m a software engineer/mathematician, whatever. Would you be interested in open sourcing the software? I could help out and I’m sure plenty others would love to as well.
Cheers either way - I’ll probably build one.
I may be ignorant, but I don't see the point. None of the benefits of open source interest me. If someone wants to modify the code to meet their requirements, they can open the program in a Python editor and change it to their hearts content.
@@HighlineGuitars I didn’t realize it was a python source file. I assumed it was a compiled language. The benefits beyond would be license stuff and the potential to have more people work on it.
I haven’t read the source though.
Hi, Chris. Bought the plans, and have downloaded them. Just a quick question, don't know if this is the proper forum or not but... After running a couple of "dry run" g-code output files at "no scatter" setting, varying only the spindle speed, the code shows the same feedrate for both spindle speeds, F20. I'm not sure what the units are for this parameter - the X axis feedrate units on the grbl sheet are in mm/minute. Does this flow thru into the g-code output or is it somehow converted to other units by the program? When I calculate out the movement per turn using mm/min, it comes out to a fraction of the wire diameter at any reasonable spindle speed.
In any case, the pickup coils I've seen wound with this system really look great. My rig is based on a desktop mini lathe, which has a pretty robust motor control, and the chuck allows me to switch out different bobbin holders easily, so what I'm considering is building only the controller, counter and traverse part and adapting it to my lathe, which would be a killer setup.
Thanks for all your efforts in doing this, developing it from scratch must have been quite an undertaking. And also for making it widely available at a reasonable cost instead of hoarding what you have learned!
The program inserts G20 at the start of the g-code file it creates. G20 tells grbl the incoming g-code is in inches. Grbl does the rest.
Great project! Would it be hard to modify by myself the Arduino code to use the metrical system for measurements input?
It's not the Arduino code that's the issue. It's the Python code where things get complicated. And it's really not complicated, but it would be time consuming.
@@HighlineGuitars I’m working as software developer, I think I can manage it. Thanks!
@@rullopat Thing is, I wrote the software and I'm not a software developer. Good luck!
Why do you have to rotate the bobbin faster then a stepper motor can achieve? Is it just to save time?
Yes.
@@HighlineGuitars I just purchased the same tensioner, with no instructios. Have you found a good tension? Why did you settle on it?
Nice build! Is the software available with the build plans?
Yes.
Hi Chris! does your software also estimate the desired DC resistance in the coil?
No. I use desired turn count, not DC resistance.
Hi Chris, I bought the package. Is it possible to have the software in mm instead of in inch. It’s more usable in Europe. Keep up the good work. Best regards, Marc
the mm to inches conversion is 25.4... if the software was open source, it'd be easy to add that feature. I recall Chris mentioned that he'd consider making it available but I don't know if that ever happened.
Has anyone else opened UGS and not have $30, $31, $32 in the default settings for grbl? It is like I do not have grbl v1.1.
Edit: Got all the files. I uninstalled Ardunio IDE and grbl, then reinstalled and the files were there. 😁
why wouldn't you just do a build video? go through and build one and post that, you would certainly sell more that way..
If I did a build video, people wouldn't need the plans. 😜
Chris, is there a particular reason for your using G code and not any of the other programming languages?
I explained it at 20:05
@@HighlineGuitars Thank You!
Which tensioner are you using? Thanks!
The one that's listed in the assembly manual.