Winders – Always on My Mind

Winders – as a vendor (and a some-time manufacturer), I am well aware of the availability – and gaps – in winders for rubber motors.  Most of the popular winders are no longer available as new items of production.  Wilder Winders (large and small), Morrill Sidewinders, Gizmo Geezer winders, even the Rees Scalewinder* – all out of production and can only be found as used or estate items.

* – We stopped production of the Rees winder because of two factors:  1) the expense of buying the gears in bulk and 2) frankly, the quality of the winders we built was never the same as the originals built by Dave Rees.

Currently, K&P manufactures winders both large (a 10/4:1 combination winder) and small (hand-sized winders available in 5:1, 10:1, and 15:1).   AMA provides a 20:1 winder in some of their beginner rubber kits and IFFS sells two winders intended for the Indoor flyers:  the top-of-the-line Geauga winder and the very fine ORWI winder.  If you are looking for large-model winders, you can probably find the Andruikov or Blazhevich winder, if you have the proper connections (and plenty of dollars).  There may be others in Europe or Asia, but to my knowledge, these are the only winders available new in any volume.

So, I am always aware of the gaps in winders:  what is available for the mid-range motors:   2-loops of 1/8″ rubber up to 2- or 3- loops of 3/16″?  There is virtually nothing in this range.  Even the small K&P winders are size-limited and can be stressed and worn out by winding motors much larger than a loop of 3/16″  The good thing about these small K&Ps is the price:  $20 each.

What is the solution?  Well, how about designing some NEW winders?  Winders all have  multipliers – gears (except for the very smooth – and out of production – indoor winder, the Holtzman Chain-Gang winder).  And for me, the production of gears has been a limiting factor.  You can buy gears, but finding exactly what you need can be tricky.  The main gear for the Rees winder cost over $50 each, unless you bought bulk, over 25 at a time.  But recently, I discovered that I could generate gears in my 3D CAD program, so I laid out a set and designed a system to encase them and turn them.

The result is a 10:1 winder that is a bit larger than the K&P winder, that feels much like the K&P, but I think has a larger capacity than the K&P.  It is pretty smooth and only has two metal parts:  the 1/16″ music wire output shaft/hook and a 4-40 cap screw to hold the knob on the crank.

The orange one is the third one I printed.  I’ll use this at home for all my test flying.  I do not really intend for this to be a replacement for the K&P, but more of a test-bed, as in “can I design and make a winder?”  It is also really a stepping stone to a larger design to fill that mid-range gap.  I don’t think this winder is viable as a sales item; it takes over 5 hours to print the parts, and about 1 hour to clean up and assemble.  These times put the price well above the K&P winder.  But maybe I could provide the winder in kit form – you finish the pieces.  Or I can just give out the STL file.  To be determined…

Now, on to think about how a large winder might be designed and put together.

 

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2 Responses to Winders – Always on My Mind

  1. Scott says:

    With the STL file many of us could probably have your winder printed at our local library. It may be a chore as some libraries restrict you to “one file at a time” meaning one piece at a time. But still doable I suppose. What plastic is it printed in?

    • Bredehoft says:

      It is printed in ABS.

      I have a Bambu printer – everything fits on one “plate” and is one file to print. That file probably would be useless for other printers.

      Yes, I am aware that if I provided the STL then anyone could print. This is a great thought exercise: the 3D print world seems to have a “share everything” mindset (I have printed many free STLs), but as a small business (very small- one person), it seems unnatural to share my intellectual property without some sort of compensation. I am not saying that I never will, just not right now.

      Thanks for your comments!

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