Make Your Own Machine To Wind Cotton On A Bare Copper Wire for STUBBLEFIELD COIL

[electricme]

@ All,

(Tiny 10 sec Video Below)

My 1st attempt to power up the DC Motor itself went OK which I'm quite pleased about.

However the waveform is different to what I expected, never mind.

I had a few miss giveings on the way to solder in the fast recovery diode, I had never used a diode in this manner, so I put this test off for quite a while before I had done more homework about the procedure.

Anyway, I solded on the back of the motor terminals the capacitor then the special diode, double checked it, then connected the motor wires to the PWM controller and switched it on.

The motor began to run at a slow speed, I adjusted the 5k trim pot a little and gradually took it to full output.

I felt the heatsinks on the PWM and they are cool to the touch, so Phew, I'm breathing a sigh of relief.

2975 = photo of the capacitor and the high speed diode solded to the motor contacts.

Video0554.3gp =  You can see how the waveform behaves on the old BWD 511 scope

BTW, if anyone has a circuit for this model, I would be interested.

jim

[FrozenWaterLab]

Wow Cool
I was in the process of ordering Cotton covered copper on a special production run from a co. here in the states.
Found this.  :
Ditto Bills comments as to your ingenuity Jim! I like it.
SOOOOOO now I've got a new shopping list to go to the scrap yard with and spend some time perusing the stuff near the bottom of the pile. Ha
I replicate like some design. Great fun.
I've got a couple Treadmill motors, a pore PWM and a good PWM for them.
So I will try to make the Counter rotating discs variable speed as well. they are in the 90-120V range so very powerful. Much more than needed I'm sure, but we make do. Right
I also have a ?sinkro? type table with speed and direction for winding Pancake coils but I don't think it would be powerful enough for ether application.
I think your right about the squish wheel drivers. A spring loaded pressure setter is a good Idea also there Bill. I'll be watching for what you come up with Jim.
A take-up real with slip level pressure would be good behind the drivers maybe. Whole thing dose need sympathetic shutdown as you alluded to Jim.
slightly different topic but it relates, hope you don't mind.
I got ahold of some Aluminum Gye wire. The stuff they stabilize the power poles with. It has an stainless steel core with 7 strands of aluminum warped around it all in the same direction. Must be 400' long.
I have tryed unwinding it by hand. Ha It's laying in the yard now, with about 20' undone. 
I'm woundering if I might be able to use said same to strip it? 

Thank You For This Thread. Oh That reminds me - Cotton Thread - Right Right Right

I'll Post my progress
FrznWtr

[FrozenWaterLab]

Just nuther thought
That shaft could be a piece of thick wall pipe. Gotta find the right size bearings for it and the Pulley wheels I get.
Teflon washer insert for leading edge?
Oh ya gotta have a couple small pulleys also. Drive belt.
Need ta make a list.
FrznWtr

[electricme]

@ FrozenWaterLab

Welcome to the beginnings of the  Cotton Winding Machine Forum.
It's nice to have you along here developing ideas and tooling up to make your own machine.

By all means, make your own machine, but I also recommend everyone to go and buy at least 1 spool of cotton covered wire (if they can, I couldn't) so they can match it to what ever they make, it gives you a guide to follow.

That being said, there is simply nothing like the joy and feeling that one has when they have a machine that performs to their own design as you can carry out modifications to it any way you want, to improve it.

Making your own machine is frought with difficulties and you will come across them, I have, and have had to think up different ways to proceed, sometime I get held up for days or weeks.
I can say here that Bill has wonderful experience in making machines and bits of machines that if you were told about them you probably wouldn't believe it, one item is common knowledge as Bill has mentioned it in the Joule Thief thread and it has been flown by NASA, so big congrats to you Bill, who incidently is a true gentleman.

It sounds like you are a similar thinker to myself, I venture into the scrap mans domain looking for items I need.

Just remember, the principle of winding a cotton thread onto a copper wire, by feeding the wire through a hole drilled completly through a central shaft, the 2 large wheels spin on the axle in opposite directions, the 3 (or more) cotton reels spin round with each spinning wheel.

You can drive each wheel seperatly or use 1 motor, either will work.

Using mains powered motors or DC will succeed, if you want good control over speeds, then I recomend PWM drives and DC motors, or use a Stepper motor, which I know nothing about, see I'm not perfect lol.

A trick I use to unwind long lengths of wire is to anchor the far end securly.
Go the the other end and use a long light wooden pole in the verticle plane and attatch each end strand to the end of each pole, then slowly unwind the wire keeping a constant tension all the time.

Another trick I use is to anchor either wire ends to strong anchoring points, then unwind one strand at a time, rolling it up on an empty spool, this takes time but it works well.
------------------

Back to the cotton machine topic
How to prevent the drawn wire from wobbling as it has the cotton wound around it.
I noticed my drawn copper wire was wobbling sometimes violently, so I made up a special guide frame, this anchors the drawn wire and reduces this effect by 90 persent.

jim

2987 = copper wire guide frame assembly, this helps to prevent the wire being wound with cotton from wobblying all around the country side.

2988 = Close up of one of the guides, notice I made it so th ecenter guide itself can be removed and a smaller or larger guide billet can be changed. I havent got that far though.

2989 = the Wire guide frame simply slides into the vertical mounting post.
I had to do it this way so I could get access to threading the cotton thread through the eyelets.

PS, this is more complicated than any simple sewing machine, it's got a minimum of 6 cotton reels, so you can tell the little lady, my sewing machine is better than yours ha ha.

2990 = Wire guide at the feed out end, Notice the 3 small wires! at each end I turned the wire into a simple tiny as can be loop, the cotton feeds through these.

Once again welcome aboard
Enjoy

jim 

[electricme]

@All,

I had to fly into town so most of the day was taken up with other "stuff" but I managed to put a little more into my Cotton Winding Machine, which relates with the drawing of the finished cotton wire.

2991 = Here is a back or end view mock-up of the DC geared motor and how it should be setup eventually.
2992 = Here is a side view of it.

After looking side on, I can get a bit closer to the action by shortening the length of the steel coach head bolts ends protruding from the cotton reels.

I was going to put fine springs and wingnuts on these bolts, but it seems centrifugal force is doing the same job.

jim