Stuck with the coil winder? Here's a cheap and accurate mechanical solution

Hi friends,

the downside of the coil winder is a precise traverse drive which can get pretty expensive using acme drive spindles.

Here is an easy way to overcome that problem.

All you'll probably need is a six-pack of beer to "bribe" your local locksmith.

The M6-thread has a pitch of exactly 1mm per revolution. Based on that and a stepping motor with 200 steps per revolution you should be able to wind precise coils with a wire diameter down to 0.005mm with no backlash!

Here is the construction idea: Any nut on an M6-thread will have a backlash of at least 0.5mm, which is by far not precise enough for a precise coil.

Using two nuts with one fixed and the other one moving spring loaded the backlash will be zero - provided the spring is strong enough.

Here is a sketch of the construction, also showing you what you can do using Eagle instead of astronomically expensive machine design software.

If there are any questions concerning the construction details don't hesitate to PM me.

I'll be glad to explain more details (which should be clear from the drawing)

The first experiment was pretty promising with almost no backlash on a primitive device. (5/100mm)

Regards to all

Boncuk

P.S. Scaling must be done according to requirements.

Boncuk - An even easier solution is to use a 'Linear Stepper' motor. It has all of the non backlash features already built in and much better precision than a machine screw/bolt.

Here a a couple of links; Stepper Linear Actuators

Stepper Motor Linear Actuators

They are also available real inexpensive on a lot of the surplus electronics places and from Ebay.

shortbus= said:

Boncuk - An even easier solution is to use a 'Linear Stepper' motor. It has all of the non backlash features already built in and much better precision than a machine screw/bolt.

Here a a couple of links; Stepper Linear Actuators


Stepper Motor Linear Actuators

They are also available real inexpensive on a lot of the surplus electronics places and from Ebay.

Click to expand...

Sorry to read about the price (US$215).

It's even more expensive than using an acme thread for precise positioning.

Members want to build a precise, but cheap coil winder which will not be used every day.

My solution will not take more than a six-pack to build it if you're lucky.

Please compare and tell me what would be your decision.

Regards

Boncuk

$215? How about $23? TSMNA25 - Permanent Magnet (PM) Non-Captive Linear Actuators

The last one I bought was on Ebay, paid $15 including shipping.

your design of the double nuts is "excellant" ! you have recreated the lathe and mill feed screw adjusters that have and still are being used to day for at least 100years my old leblond metal lathe from 1923 had them.... (you know it works when you find out its already been done. good job though and never stop learning

Hi Joe G,

when I got that idea I certainly didn't know about the leblond metal lathe.

I also didn't intend to re-invent the wheel.

I just experimented a bit to have precise drives for my solar tracker which follows the sun when the sky is obscured for full power output of the panels as soon as the sky is clear.

Nevertheless I guess it wasn't a bad idea to post this simple mechanical solution for the coil winder.

Regards

Boncuk

I found this one on the net when I was researching coil winders some time back. It's the ultimate in simplicity; one stepper turns the coil, the other stepper turns a plastic thread. The plastic thread holds the wire (under tension) and positions it linearly with good accuracy.

The only problem is IF the wire tension fails, but even that can be solved by using a sprung flap on top of the thread to hold the wire engaged.

**broken link removed**

**broken link removed**

Hi Mr RB,

if you connect a strong spring to that "arm" its tension should be high enough to keep it within thread to touch both flanks simultaneously.

Interesting idea!

Regards

Boncuk

Yeah it looks good. Just needs two stepper motors and a decent tensioning device. You could mount the whole lot to one flat plate.