Spooling attempt

Posted on November 4, 2017

After many attempts, I finally was able to put together the plastic pieces in the expected shape of the pickup. From that point, I started to spool the coil wire around the magnet pole piece.

Relying on a few tutorials I found about how to spool guitar pickups, I used a drill and the spooling bit I had prepared before.

The first issue I encountered was that once the pickup is drilled into the wood, the screws stick out, preventing the wire from reaching the bottom of the pole piece. That’s a problem.

So I tried taping the pickup to the spooling bit, which seemed to hold reasonably well. At that point, the issue is that holding the drill trigger for a long time is not steady, and lead me to break the coil wire. And swears, I must admit…

I thought of 3D-printing a new spooling bit which would have snaps that would hold the pickup. However, after discussing with a TML colleague, she suggested that the snaps would be in the way of the wire, the same way the screw heads were…

Spooling Machine

So I got myself a new sub-project: I am going to build a spooling machine.

It should be fairly simple. I would use a motor, similar to the one I am using in my IMCA 400 project. I will use a knob to control the rotation speed, allowing me more control.

I went to the wood shop technician to get his opinion before getting started, and he suggested I move the bobbin holder closer to the interior of the machine, so the coil wire does not naturally try to go out of the pickup pole piece.

In the coming week, I will spend more time designing the machine so I can build it soon.