retrosurfer1959 Posted January 25, 2011 Share Posted January 25, 2011 Anybody remember playing with erector sets as a kid? I was Glad I did, I needed to wind a pickup earlier today for a friend and didn't have the right tools but his kid had an erector set so I built a pickup winder. The amazing part is it worked almost as well as the Shatten winder I usually use and didn't cost anywhere near the $400.00 a Shatten does. See there is some benefit to the old style toys after all let's face it you could never wind a pickup with a video game. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sproggie Posted January 25, 2011 Share Posted January 25, 2011 Anybody remember playing with erector sets as a kid? I was Glad I did, I needed to wind a pickup earlier today for a friend and didn't have the right tools but his kid had an erector set so I built a pickup winder. The amazing part is it worked almost as well as the Shatten winder I usually use and didn't cost anywhere near the $400.00 a Shatten does. See there is some benefit to the old style toys after all let's face it you could never wind a pickup with a video game. That's brilliant..........and slow enough you can count the turns ? Do you have a speed control on the motor ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
damian Posted January 25, 2011 Share Posted January 25, 2011 Huh !!!! An Aspie solution.................Geniusness at it's best !!!!!!!!! Amazing............. [thumbup] ........... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
retrosurfer1959 Posted January 25, 2011 Author Share Posted January 25, 2011 SF - Actually you can't see it in the photo that I took but it has a simple dial counter (i pulled off a old copy machine) on the other side running off a second rubber band so I just wound until the wrap count was correct. The speed was set by the pulley size but the kid had enough different gears it was not a issue, what was really nice was the friction on the small motor was perfect to keep wraps tight but would stop before it would bind or break the wire like a drill would Damian - LOL yeah probably but it's kinda fun to McGyver stuff every once in a while. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jon S. Posted January 25, 2011 Share Posted January 25, 2011 VERY(very, very) Cool!! I've been interested in doing this lately, and was going to try it with a fishing reel. Now I may have to visit the folks and dig through my old toy boxes! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Searcy Posted January 25, 2011 Share Posted January 25, 2011 Cool! Greats use of toys. I made one a long time ago out of a HotWheels.....thing. I used it for demonstrations. People really got a kick out of it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
freak show Posted January 25, 2011 Share Posted January 25, 2011 That really is unbelievably cool! Is there any chance you could do a demonstration video? I would love to see it in action! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sinner 13 Posted January 25, 2011 Share Posted January 25, 2011 hmmm interesting, so what your sayin is that instead of handing some one 400 bucks all i need is 20-30 dollars worth of erector set parts? What a deal. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Searcy Posted January 25, 2011 Share Posted January 25, 2011 All you need is to spin a bobbin and count the turns. Anything that will get you there will work. Actually on old Epi pickups they didn't even count the turns. The used a timer. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
damian Posted January 25, 2011 Share Posted January 25, 2011 All you need is to spin a bobbin and count the turns. Anything that will get you there will work. Actually on old Epi pickups they didn't even count the turns. The used a timer. Same with old Gibby pickups as well........ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
daveinspain Posted January 25, 2011 Share Posted January 25, 2011 When and why do you need to rewind a pick up? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Searcy Posted January 25, 2011 Share Posted January 25, 2011 When and why do you need to rewind a pick up? For fun and proffit! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TommyK Posted January 25, 2011 Share Posted January 25, 2011 That's brilliant..........and slow enough you can count the turns ? Do you have a speed control on the motor ? There are plenty of parts in that old Erector set you could probably make one. Failing that.. does the kid have a slot car race set? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sinner 13 Posted January 26, 2011 Share Posted January 26, 2011 There are plenty of parts in that old Erector set you could probably make one. Failing that.. does the kid have a slot car race set? that or really any low voltage potentiometer. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
retrosurfer1959 Posted January 26, 2011 Author Share Posted January 26, 2011 That really is unbelievably cool! Is there any chance you could do a demonstration video? I would love to see it in action! Sorry I should have filmed it working but it was one of those things that I just did and then thought that's pretty cool as an after thought so I snapped a picture with the phone. The winder is gone now like I said it was at a friends house and it's his kids favorite toy so it's probably turned into a helicopter or something else by now. The little boy was fascinated by the pulleys and gears though and especially with the counter so I let him keep it, so he probably has the first erector set helicopter that counts blade revolutions. When and why do you need to rewind a pick up? Usually it's to get a specific or different tone - in this case this is a old Fender Strat and the pickup actually was damaged and had some broken wrappings, I wanted to use the old bobbins, magnets and everything else to keep it as original as possible so I just rewound the broken coil. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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