Sometimes
you just luck out...
I've been searching for any new parts for my
Stevens winder I could find for
just about forever it seems,
and sometime last Christmas I totally lucked out.
I was visiting a
website dedicated to another one of my
hobbies, and I saw
a
classified ad there for 'random coil
winder parts' - from a company that makes
small hobby electric
motors for things
like RC cars. I immediately
bought it all.
Here is the photo from
the ad. The reason why
I bought this stuff is at top
center in the photo,
but it wasn't the only
reason. You see, the minty
1950's
Rollan Co. wire tensioner 'just
like the
one I use' (shown
upside down in
this
photo)
is
impossible to
find parts for, but
there are
also two
other great
reasons
to buy
in this photo.
What are they?
One
each
of Meteor
coil winder
tensioners
model 483 (at
upper
right
- for
superfine wire
up to 52
AWG gauge)
and a
Meteor 484 tensioner (for
42 gauge wire -
the big
gray oblong
piece shown at
lower
left with
two round
white pulleys
and
a bracket bolted
to it)!
Why
is this cool?
The Meteor
coil winder
was Swiss
made, and in
the 1950's
and
1960's considered
*the*
finest coil
winder in the
world. These
parts
are
even
more difficult
to find than original
parts for my
winder!
This photo
below shows the Rollan Co. wire tensioner (factory 'special
ordered' from Geo. Stevens)
mounted in its correct orientation on a winder
Here
is a closeup
photo of the
Meteor 483
wire tensioner
'as found'.
The actual
tensioner
(upper
left
with
the 'gramm'
scale on it)
is on top of
the wire
spool holder
This
is the assembled
Model 483
tensioner for
46 to 54AWG?
coil wire.
The
wire spool
fits in the
plastic
spool holder
mounted
underneath it, and
the black rod
is the mount
for the entire
assembly.
Why
is this cool?
The
finer the wire
you wind
with,
the higher the
output from
your
pickup. For
example, one
'PAF'
humbucking
pickup's coil
(there are two
per pickup)
would be
factory wound
with
42 gauge wire and have
an output DCR
resistance of
about 3500
ohms, for a
total pickup
DCR of
about 7K. If
I wanted to
raise the
output, I
could use
finer coil
wire
but the wire
becomes much
more
fragile
and difficult
to wind with.
Since
this wire
tensioner is specifically
designed for
use with up to
54 AWG
wire, I could
use this
to wind some seriously powerful
pickups!
Best
of all... the
483 tensioner
was NOS,
but I didn't
even know that
when I bought
it.
Here's
the original
label from the
shipping box
Below
- The Meteor
Model 484 tensioner
for wire
gauges from 32
to
46
AWG wire,
comparable
to
the Rollan fine
wire tensioner
also
shown above.
This is a
great 'general
purpose' tensioner
for
my
uses. I'm
going to try
the Rollan
tensioner for
awhile because
it was
designed for
use with the
Stevens, and
then I'll make
a mounting
bracket
for this one
and see which
one I like
better. The
Rollan does have
a few
advantages
this one
doesn't have
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