The winder makes it easy
0[Mr Innovative] need to wind coils, and decided to make a machine to do the job. Making such machines has become much easier over the years. There was a time when we probably would have had to hack an old printer or scanner to get linear rods and stepper motors. Now, thanks to the generalization of 3D printing, we can order such parts from many places. 3D printing also helps make all the little custom widgets you need to put something like this together.
The machine looks great. It uses a number of parts that would look right at home on a 3D printer or CNC build. We thought his Chinese mini table saw did a great job cutting aluminum extrusions, but we were concerned about the safety of his fingers. We will admit that we are generally lazy and buy the precut extrusions.
Of course, for those who only make a few spools, a stud shank in a variable speed drill will get you there. But if you did even a small series of production, we could see the value. It would be quite simple to add software to control the number of revs, speed and other parameters.
It reminded us of a recent build we saw for the pickup coil winding. The real value, however, is a machine for winding those pesky tesla coils with lots of turns of fine wire.