Groovy new toy errr tool..

[dingobass]

When I first saw this toy on the Stewmac site, I thought what a great idea... Bloody expensive when you factor in the Aussie dollar which put me off buying it straight away...
Anyhoo, after a lot of thought and Miss Fe crunching the numbers it was decided to jump in and buy one.

So I present to you the nut and saddle dressing tool.

Basically, this is an adjustable vice on wheels.

How does it work?
OK, in the first pic you will see the two height adjuster screws. The inside pair are for nuts and the outer for saddles.
The notches on the head are exactly 1/4mm apart... Thats some fine tuning!
And the two on the side are to tighten the vice jaws. Fantastic!

First, you adjust the height screws to leave the desired amount of bone to be milled off.
Second, on a known dead flat surface you place a piece of adhesive sandpaper and run the tool back and forwards until the wheels make contact.
And now we have a perfectly square bottom on our blank.

It would normally take me about an hour to do 10 blanks by hand, and even with a fence it can be a pain to get that bottom dead square.
15 minutes including tool setup and I had milled 20 blanks!

Do I love it? Yes. This is one of the best tools I have bought in ages and for anyone who cuts as many nuts as I do, this is a must have!

[wokkaboy]

wow what an awseome tool DB, will have to check it out next man cave visit

[tonyw]

Great piece of kit, was looking at one but i was gun shy, dont do enough nuts.

I am going to out source the nuts i get orders for anyway, i think i have 3 teles at the moment a special order Teisco and this 12 string i have here, can sling you and order if you like?, i just havent got the time seeing as i am branching back exclusively into pickups and wiring, just about to spend half a lifes earnings on a second winder. Havent got time to do pickguards either, but i dont do alot, i buy them in usually but i get the occasional can i route it different job. Stick to a bit of tech work, setups etc and electronics.

[dingobass]

No worries Tony, flick me an email with dimensions etc and it can be done.

On a different note, what pup winder have you lashed out on? I have been eyeing off the new Mojo winder on the SM page, but I very rarely wind pups and I think that, no, I know that the Minister for War and Finance would flense me alive and possibly roast my boy bitz over a slow fire if I bought one

[tonyw]

Mojo winder is nice, has a gauss tester on the top, machine a little slow, i bought a Thomas winder a couple of years ago now, after my old homemade winder kicked the tin , bought a gauss meter and had a months beer on the change, thats a lot of change, i have an account there at Mojo but cant get a discount lol.

I will still scatter wind on the Thomas and also have a more Automated CNC machine, i can scatter wind or go Automatic, people want scatter winds so i will still do them. I will be able to do any pickup people might suggest as i will now have software to design it
to exact specs, and i can leave it run by itself as i turn another set on my old winder, or make up wiring looms Time to step up to the plate mate woof lol.

[wokkaboy]

Tony what is the advantage of scatter wound pickups ? I assume you mean the windings don't go on parallel/in line on the bobbins?

[tonyw]

Tony what is the advantage of scatter wound pickups ? I assume you mean the windings don't go on parallel/in line on the bobbins?

Hey Wok where i was taught its just a load of old pfft

Scatterwound is really just another sales pitch, you are random winding multi layers of wire as apposed to the exact same number of winds per pass on the cross section of the bobbin that a machine does. What matters is the count of turns per square and the relation between the length and cross-section of a coil.

People think scatter wound has some sort of mojo to it, the coils can be a bit more random and inconsistent and theres no way your going to sit there and wind 20 coils a day by hand, thats where the automated machine comes in, consistency.

A couple of points straight from my notes: Electricity doesn't distinguish between layered and random wound coils, what matters is the count of turns per square and the relation between the length and cross-section of a coil.

A well wound coil is a well wound coil regardless if it's wound with professional equipment, or a sowing machine.

Some people like the inconsistency of scatter wound coils, some dont.

[wokkaboy]

ok thanks for the explanation Tony. Winding my own pickups is something I want to do in the future build a winding machine

[tonyw]

ok thanks for the explanation Tony. Winding my own pickups is something I want to do in the future build a winding machine

Buy plenty of wire when you start Wok, my mates 1st crack at it was 200 turns before he broke it, he got progressively more turns until he worked his tension and traverse properly, he winds a set of strats in about an hour these days. Nothing worse than 6000 turns in and ping, or you notice your outside the bobbin, then its time to go to Bunnings to buy beer haha

[wokkaboy]

cheers for the tips Tony, when the time comes to build a machine and if you are still on the forum I might ask for some more tips and maybe a plan to build one if you have it thanks