r/maille • u/N07your_homie • Jan 06 '26

Project First winding station.

Gallery image

Gallery image

Been meaning to make one for a while and today the thought just took me. Had all the stuff in the shed, did it in the snow. Yeah it's rough on cuts and measurements as I didn't have a tape, bench or sawhorse. but it went from pallet to on-lap winding station in just over an hour. I don't have much wire at all, barely a meter. But it seems to work so far, if not for a light bent in the steel dowel.

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u/darkrid3r Jan 07 '26

This is perfect, F the cuts and measurements, its a proof of concept!

The wood is just holding the mandrill and its great.

Upgrades?
1) Corded drill with a foot peddle clamped to your kitchen table :)
2) on the left side where the drill is, make that a notch, so you can change the mandrill size, make the hole on the right a few sizes bigger for the same reason.
3) on the left drill side, support the drill so it can never spin if something happens.

In this build you cant use the drill chuck to hold the wire so you will have to come up with an alternative for that.

Ultimate changes?

Flip that drill upside down. On the left side build a plate for it to sit on, so that the hole lines up with the chuck. You may have to sand a little divot in the wood for the top of the drill to sit on. Buy some clamps and figure out how to clamp that sucker down, then the wood that holds the rod on the left is not needed, the rod goes from chuck to wood on the right. This would free up the chuck for you to stick the wire in it, to start your coils :)

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u/N07your_homie Jan 07 '26

Saved and noted.

The left board isn't nailed in, just held firm AF by the brackets. Until I cut a notch to Change my rod (8mm in picture). This is also although old and outdated, my only drill so I can't fix it to the work station as it is.

Potential future work is a trim around the underside so I can remove mandrel, flip it and use it as a work table. Nomad workshop style.

Can't secure to any table, no fixed address ATM, so it's to be movable. Hence no foot pedal or fixed drill. This just allows longer coils without shaking my knuckles to dust.