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I have a spreadsheet that can calculate the several sets of winding-wire diameters and spacing/winding-wire pitch-angles which will stress the core wire to what I want. As with all such things, including tension graphs and all the rest, the spreadsheet will NOT make the decisions FOR you. For this you must use your own knowledge and taste, or those of others, but the spreadsheet does allow me to learn exactly what parameters will produce what I have chosen.
I have a long static steel rod I use as a kind of resting place for my little paddle, which is designed to control the feed of the winding wire, and, through eye-balling the attached clear plastic protractor, to have pretty good control ensuring that at least the average pitch of the winding, and hence its spacing, is close enough to what I have chosen. So far, over the years, the results have been pretty good.
The paddle, you’ll see, has an L-shaped area padded in leather which is pushed against the spinning core wire, and by holding the paddle against the core in this manner and using the steady-rest to help me stay honest in my position, I can keep from deflecting the core wire away from its intended axis. There is a small leather-padded notch for the winding wire to feed through, but I am still forced to rely upon experience and judgment to make sure I pull hard enough on the winding wire to get it to bind successfully, but not so hard as to break it. This is a tricky part of the process.
The driving power is a simple sewing-machine motor, which drives the central shaft. The two ends are kept exactly in sync with each other, to prevent twisting the core, by means of automobile cogged timing wheels and cogged timing belts. This was ‘invented’ by a local machinist on my behalf, and I’ve never had a core develop a twist and prevent binding of the winding wire since he installed it for me many years ago.
I hope these images will give you some new ideas as you develop what will eventually be a better setup than mine. I confess that I live with some of the inconveniences of mine because I know how to use it, and because I don’t build enough clavichords to require me to make sets of wound strings all THAT often. I do think that my wound strings sound very, very good.
owen
____________________________________
Owen Daly Early Keyboard Instruments
557 Statesman St. NE
Salem, OR 97301
http://www.dalyharpsichords.com
(503)-362-9396
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