Discussion:
Coil winder
(too old to reply)
Daniele
2003-07-19 14:02:22 UTC
Permalink
Cannot find one like the 'Coilmaster'.. i'll try
to make it myself, not a big trouble doing
an holder for 3 shafts, troubles will arrive
only with gears and cams.
Anyone can give me a scan of them?
(seem they're flat at one side)

--

^___^
Daniele
www.tuberadio.it
Daniele
2003-07-19 15:54:17 UTC
Permalink
I have been kicking myself in the pants for not having enough money
to buy a complete, in-the-box CoilMaster last year at the hamfest in
Melbourne, FL. The guy wanted $75.00 for it, and did I say that IT
WAS COMPLETE? Had all the gears, the wire guide, instructions,
everything. I asked him if he would consider a deposit while I tried
to find a money machine, but there was another guy right behind me
who had money in hand.
Oh well, maybe next year.....
I'd pay that 75 istantly just for not waste time in making one
but probably the real cost in materials for a DIY could be near
40$. Now i'm thinking that near my village there is a foundry,
i can do a wood model for a small production of aluminium or
cast iron copies of the shafts chassis.
The real trouble is making cams and gears.
Maybe cams are done with only a disc with the center moved
from the axis of the shaft for a distance equivalent to the
lenght of the coil and not with a sort of emphasized profile (or yes?).
What i'd like to know is the gears ratio and if i can't find someone that
can do gears i thought to ask to a clock repairer for large
gears.

--

^___^
Daniele
www.tuberadio.it
Alan Douglas
2003-07-19 16:25:30 UTC
Permalink
Hi,
Morris coil winders are cute and fun to play with for a few hours,
but after that, they go on the shelf and are never needed again.

Someone, I think Lindsay Books, sells plans for making one. It's
been mentioned here before, about a year ago, so a google search
should find it:

http://groups.google.com/advanced_group_search

Cheers, Alan
Daniele
2003-07-19 17:41:23 UTC
Permalink
Post by Alan Douglas
Hi,
Morris coil winders are cute and fun to play with for a few hours,
but after that, they go on the shelf and are never needed again.
Maybe correct, maybe not, depends on situations.
I asked my self:
- how many times you'd like to make a set but you stops
when you arrive at coils? (In Italy there are not so much parts
available)
- how much time you spend in searching a coil for a an old radio
and how will work fine that one you bought as good used as last resource?
- how much time NOS or good used coils will be available on the market?
Then i tought that a coil winder takes few space in the shell,
doesn't eat or scream and never needs to go in the garden for pissing.
Would take time to build it? Yes, a piece at a time, like all projects,
but this time for something useful.
Alan, following you, this hobby deads quickly, how often we spend
lot of time restoring a radio that in the best of cases goes
in the living room and how much time in a year we hear *all* our radios?
I believe it makes part of the game of hobbies, become mad for a radio,
sometimes spending more money in repairing them than looking
for a just done on eBay.
Post by Alan Douglas
Someone, I think Lindsay Books, sells plans for making one. It's
been mentioned here before, about a year ago, so a google search
True, a friend of mine gave me that book last year, but
sincerely it appears me too much complicated in doing all parts.
It's a very good project and probably runs better than Morris,
but not so quick to do as appears.
There are some auctions on ebay that have screenshots
of the book, search for item 3036266265 .

--

^___^
Daniele
www.tuberadio.it
Neutrodyne
2003-07-19 18:48:45 UTC
Permalink
Subject: Re: Coil winder
Date: 7/19/2003 12:41 PM Central Daylight Time
Post by Alan Douglas
Hi,
Morris coil winders are cute and fun to play with for a few hours,
but after that, they go on the shelf and are never needed again.
Maybe correct, maybe not, depends on situations.
- how many times you'd like to make a set but you stops
when you arrive at coils? (In Italy there are not so much parts
available)
- how much time you spend in searching a coil for a an old radio
and how will work fine that one you bought as good used as last resource?
- how much time NOS or good used coils will be available on the market?
Then i tought that a coil winder takes few space in the shell,
doesn't eat or scream and never needs to go in the garden for pissing.
Would take time to build it? Yes, a piece at a time, like all projects,
but this time for something useful.
Alan, following you, this hobby deads quickly, how often we spend
lot of time restoring a radio that in the best of cases goes
in the living room and how much time in a year we hear *all* our radios?
I believe it makes part of the game of hobbies, become mad for a radio,
sometimes spending more money in repairing them than looking
for a just done on eBay.
Post by Alan Douglas
Someone, I think Lindsay Books, sells plans for making one. It's
been mentioned here before, about a year ago, so a google search
True, a friend of mine gave me that book last year, but
sincerely it appears me too much complicated in doing all parts.
It's a very good project and probably runs better than Morris,
but not so quick to do as appears.
There are some auctions on ebay that have screenshots
of the book, search for item 3036266265 .
--
^___^
Daniele
www.tuberadio.it
It depends on your resources, but getting gears cut or cast goes well beyond
the complexity of the parts in the winder in the Lindsay book. All the parts in
it are pretty common. If I built it I believe I would motorize it with a cheap
DC cordless drill motor, and a current limited power supply. That way one could
set the maximum torque below the breaking point of the wire and possibly wind
such things as power tranformer windings, RF chokes or IF coils with very fine
wire. Of course a turns counter with nixie tube readout would be nice too.
An advantage in the basic Lindsay (Gingery) design is the limited torque
in the friction-type hand crank drive - this allows a slippage if there is a
kink in the wire feed, rather than a broken wire. As I remember photos of the
Morris it is a direct gear drive. The biggest problem with the Morris I can see
is that it is enough of a collectible (and often costly) that I would be slow
to make modifications to it to make it work better or do different types of
coils.
If you have shops close by that are willing to make things like gears and
bearings at a low cost, the Morris design is probably a good option. The
machinists in my area want orders for dozens or hundreds of parts before they
would even set up to cut a gear.
Neutrodyne
Alan Douglas
2003-07-19 19:27:03 UTC
Permalink
Hi,
I've owned a Morris for thirty-something years, and have used it
maybe twice. It simply doesn't work very well. You can do solenoid
coils by hand, no need for a Morris. It's useless for multi-layer
transformer windings because you need both hands to guide the wire and
apply insulation. There's too much friction in the moving parts,
particularly the "right-angle" gears, to control tiny wire as used in
headphones and the like, and it doesn't go fast enough.

The one thing it's good for is universal coils, but setting up the
right gear ratios and traversing cams takes considerable trial and
error. And the wire guide might have worked when silk-covered wire was
new, but it doesn't handle fragile antique wire easily.

When I need a universal-wound coil, it's far easier to root through
the coil box for something already made. Steal a pie off a choke or
something.

I made my own coil winder, with a foot-pedal speed control. I've
used wire as fine as #46, and have done interstage transformers with
12,000 turns or more. Try that with a Morris. I posted photos of my
winder on the Photo Gallery over at the Forum, and they should still
be there, though the owner is trying to re-organize the filing system
to make things more accessable.

Cheers, Alan
Bill Janssen
2003-07-19 23:35:32 UTC
Permalink
Post by Alan Douglas
Hi,
I've owned a Morris for thirty-something years, and have used it
maybe twice. It simply doesn't work very well. You can do solenoid
coils by hand, no need for a Morris. It's useless for multi-layer
transformer windings because you need both hands to guide the wire and
apply insulation. There's too much friction in the moving parts,
particularly the "right-angle" gears, to control tiny wire as used in
headphones and the like, and it doesn't go fast enough.
The one thing it's good for is universal coils, but setting up the
right gear ratios and traversing cams takes considerable trial and
error. And the wire guide might have worked when silk-covered wire was
new, but it doesn't handle fragile antique wire easily.
When I need a universal-wound coil, it's far easier to root through
the coil box for something already made. Steal a pie off a choke or
something.
I made my own coil winder, with a foot-pedal speed control. I've
used wire as fine as #46, and have done interstage transformers with
12,000 turns or more. Try that with a Morris. I posted photos of my
winder on the Photo Gallery over at the Forum, and they should still
be there, though the owner is trying to re-organize the filing system
to make things more accessable.
Cheers, Alan
Not familiar with the forum and the photo gallery. What URL
for those please.

Bill K7NOM
Alan Douglas
2003-07-20 01:04:17 UTC
Permalink
Hi,
Post by Bill Janssen
Not familiar with the forum and the photo gallery. What URL
for those please.
http://168.103.222.44/cgi-bin/forums/index.cgi

The Gallery is one of the buttons at the top of the page.

73, Alan
Bill Turner
2003-07-19 19:18:04 UTC
Permalink
YOU HAVE THAT RIGHT ALAN, MINE HAS NOT BEEN OFF THE SHELF IN SEVERAL
YEARS. I AM THINKING OF SELLING IT BECAUSE IT DOESN'T LOOK LIKE I WILL
EVER USE IT AGAIN. BILL
scharkalvin
2003-07-24 23:39:06 UTC
Permalink
Post by Alan Douglas
Hi,
Morris coil winders are cute and fun to play with for a few hours,
but after that, they go on the shelf and are never needed again.
Someone, I think Lindsay Books, sells plans for making one. It's
been mentioned here before, about a year ago, so a google search
http://groups.google.com/advanced_group_search
Cheers, Alan
I've got a copy of the Lindsay book buried in a box someplace.
It's a nice design, looks real easy to build too. A nice clone of the
Moris unit.

Bill Jeffrey
2003-07-20 00:10:23 UTC
Permalink
Post by Daniele
Cannot find one like the 'Coilmaster'.. i'll try
to make it myself, not a big trouble doing
an holder for 3 shafts, troubles will arrive
only with gears and cams.
Anyone can give me a scan of them?
(seem they're flat at one side)
Daniele -

I have a Coilwinder. If you are hell-bent on making one, I would be
glad to put the parts on a scanner, with a ruler for size, and send you
the result. Let me know exactly what parts you would like scanned. But
I have to agree with other comments - although a Coilmaster is "cool",
it really isn't very useful. Like others, when I really needed to wind
a coil, I built my own motor-powered winder out of an old sewing machine
motor, a Variac, and a couple garage door pulleys mounted on a pine
board.

Bill Jeffrey
--
Outgoing mail is automatically scanned by Norton Anti-Virus
Remove NOSPAM from my address before e-mailing a reply.
Daniele
2003-07-20 01:00:50 UTC
Permalink
Post by Bill Jeffrey
I have a Coilwinder. If you are hell-bent on making one, I would be
glad to put the parts on a scanner, with a ruler for size, and send
you the result. Let me know exactly what parts you would like
scanned. But I have to agree with other comments - although a
Coilmaster is "cool", it really isn't very useful. Like others, when
I really needed to wind a coil, I built my own motor-powered winder
out of an old sewing machine motor, a Variac, and a couple garage
door pulleys mounted on a pine board.
Thank you Bill, i've sent you
an email.
--

^___^
Daniele
www.tuberadio.it
jaycee
2003-07-20 11:50:05 UTC
Permalink
Post by Daniele
Cannot find one like the 'Coilmaster'.. i'll try
to make it myself, not a big trouble doing
an holder for 3 shafts, troubles will arrive
only with gears and cams.
Anyone can give me a scan of them?
(seem they're flat at one side)
--
^___^
Daniele
www.tuberadio.it
Here are some pics of the coilmaster and alternatives :

http://www.qsl.net/k5bcq/COIL/COIL.html


I just finished assembling my own pc controlled coil winder :

http://users.belgacom.net/cse_systems/winder.htm


Does anyone have detailed instructions on how the basket weave is done ?

I could program this into the control pc.
The current shaft is too tick for this type of coil but since it is
fixed with 2 setscrews it can be removed and replaced by a thinner
shaft.

jef
Eddie Brimer
2003-07-20 12:52:01 UTC
Permalink
cool! you put a lot of thought and work into that winder.

Eddie Brimer
2480 S. Beersheba Rd.
Sharon SC, 29742

visit my web page "THIS OLD RADIO"
http://members.aol.com/EB062559/THISOLDRADIOINDEX.html
jakdedert
2003-07-20 13:10:02 UTC
Permalink
Great Work!

jak
Post by jaycee
Post by Daniele
Cannot find one like the 'Coilmaster'.. i'll try
to make it myself, not a big trouble doing
an holder for 3 shafts, troubles will arrive
only with gears and cams.
Anyone can give me a scan of them?
(seem they're flat at one side)
--
^___^
Daniele
www.tuberadio.it
http://www.qsl.net/k5bcq/COIL/COIL.html
http://users.belgacom.net/cse_systems/winder.htm
Does anyone have detailed instructions on how the basket weave is done ?
I could program this into the control pc.
The current shaft is too tick for this type of coil but since it is
fixed with 2 setscrews it can be removed and replaced by a thinner
shaft.
jef
Daniele
2003-07-20 20:57:07 UTC
Permalink
Post by jaycee
http://users.belgacom.net/cse_systems/winder.htm
WOW!
Great machine! Well done.
Ok, Bidpay accepted? ^______^

--

^___^
Daniele
www.tuberadio.it
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