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Building a Pickup Winder and Trying Not to Electrocute Myself

yeah, i should have made a picture. but congrats on not being dead!!!! 220vac is no joke, it's not certain death but it is enough to cause involuntary muscle contractions (makes it difficult/impossible to let go once the current starts flowing) and possible severe burns, and yes it can kill you but that depends on where the current flows and your level of hydration/electrolytes. i thought you had a little better grasp of what i was saying. next time i'll include a diagram. and congrats on getting it working. that should be a fun toy.
 
you're more likely to not let go of a 110v as the 220v is more prone to knocking you away before your grasp can get to it.
 
STOP!!! I'm already paranoid enough!!!

Do I have any heat considerations to think about with the components? It's not like it will be running for hours at a time, but again I just want to be double-extra safe.

I'm working on putting it all together now so I can start futzing with the switch trigger.
 
AutoBat said:
you're more likely to not let go of a 110v as the 220v is more prone to knocking you away before your grasp can get to it.
Click to expand...

Actually, the higher voltage doesn't "knock you away" as is commonly believed, it causes your muscles into spasm and you involuntarily jerk yourself away, assuming you don't wrap your hand around something hot. In that case, your hand is likely to clench tightly shut, and you'll hang on to your murderer and cook until someone shuts the power off. Been there, done that.

On the plus side, higher voltages tend to stop your heart, and once you're off them if you're reasonably healthy it'll restart on its own. Lower voltages, however, are more likely to put your heart into fibrillation, which is difficult to recover from without a defibrillator. So, even if the power gets shut off or you fall off it or whatever, you may not be pumping any blood and you die anyway. Been there, done that, too. Didn't die, though.

I've been zapped hundreds of times and 99.9% of the time if you get hurt, it's your reaction that hurts you, not the power. Unfortunately, you very rarely have any control over your reaction.
 
whitebison66 said:
I got 161 wraps into it before the wire broke ...
Click to expand...

Not a fan of over wound pickups are you?  :icon_jokercolor: :icon_biggrin:

TT: Very inspiring project.  :icon_thumright:

 
that's your sewing machine motor??? that must've been a hell of a sewing machine. i think you'll get a lot of reliable service out of that, no heat issues at all.
 
Dan0, I assume it was probably from an industrial type machine, since Hong Kong used to do a lot of garment manufacture.

Good to know I won't burn or electrocute myself. Major goal met!
 
yeah most of the sewing machine motors i've seen are about as big as the little 12v motors in a power wheels or a battery powered drill. but it make sense for that to be for an industrial machine.
 
I didn't even notice the 8800rpm until now. Barring (inevitable) failures, I could wind a pickup in a minute flat. No thank you!
 
yeah but the counter is only rated for 10 counts a second (600rpm). and it being an ac device i can't imagine it can go more than 20-40 counts per second (1200-2400rpm) or else the ac wave might trip the counter on its own. might have to get a low voltage dc version to get a ton of speed, but i have no idea what is actually possible, maybe ken from roadhouse pickups or alfang can chime in on that.
 
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