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| quantumeer:
I need to wind a few small coils, around 5 mm diameter and a couple of thousand turns of 49 or 50 gauge wire (0.030 to 0.025mm). Normal coil winding tools are fine for stronger wire, but for wire with a breaking strength around 10 g, our bigger tools (pictured) don't have the finesse. The gearing and inertia interfere with the delicate control neeeded, while the automatic tensioning and traverse don't work on this scale: finger feeding is best, so having a right-hand winding handle is unhelpful. Quaint but useful Douglas coil winder for chunkier wire Showing the winding handle, turns counter, dual-disc continuously variable traverse, dual (foward and reverse) leadscrews with automatic turnaround, and (top) wire supply tensioning brake ... but all I need is a little motorised spindle with instant control and a turn counter, the whole thing to fit under a microscope. To emphasise the delicacy of the operation, here's why you don't lend your 50 gauge wire to just anybody: Find the end! Actually that's easy because there are so many. Find the real end. Don't pull too hard or you'll have two more. My first thoughts were of a geared DC motor, because the electronics would be easier, but then I would have to do something about a turns counter. The motors I tried also had a fraction of a turn overrun past a dead stop, which is not ideal either. So off to the backing store in search of a little stepper. They don't make floppy drives like that any more. A nice little stepper and buffer chip just waiting for a home. So here is today's treasure, ready to build something. |
| Bernd:
Hey Q, That looks to be an interesting project. I've got a few those old drives laying around, I think. :scratch: Bernd |
| Brass_Machine:
This will be good to watch. Eric |
| quantumeer:
Thanks for your interest. The early versions of things like those drives, before their off the shelf components get replaced by a fully custom design, are a great source of bits. Speaking of which, I have found enough bits to complete the electronic "design" The display is a module with a 2-wire interface, which will save on solder and software compared to the ubiquitous LCD, but the real reason it has the honour of being part of this project is the same as the selection of the PIC controller: I found it in the useful box. Almost anything would work. Next, some soldering. Mark |
| doubleboost:
Interesting stuff That spool of wire reminds me of the 15kg reel of mig wire i dropped :( :( :( :( :( John |
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