Wire Twisting Machine

I needed a lot of twisted wire and I could not find it anywhere in the correct thickness / colour.  I could have it custom made, but this would be too expensive. I could hand twist it with a drill, but that would limit it to 10 meter at a time. So I decided to make a machine to twist wire.

At this time I got a motor, belt and bearing assembly from a washing machine. This makes a good base to build something on. I mounted the assembly on a wooden board and made a round disk on the tub mount.

Next I mounted 2 spool holders on the disk, they use a M12 al-tread axle with 2 conical clamps. At first I used bearings to make it easier for the spools to turn, but after some experiments it turned out it needed some resistance, so I replaced them with 3D printed blocks. Above the spools I made a funnel to make the wire always exit in the same spot.

Next I made a spool winder with a gearbox motor:

Next I made an arm above the machine to guide the wire:

To control the 2 motors I used 2 motor controllers and a DC power supply for the 12V motor. These I build into a box:

DC:

AC:

I have written a small tutorial on how to drive a washing machine motor with this controller:  Link

The machine in action: