Show & Tell: Motorized Bobbin Winder

[Uwe]

I've been working on this stand-alone motorized bobbin winder for shuttle hook style bobbins for a little while. The project is far enough advanced to do a little show-and-tell.

Control box and geared motor runs on harmless 24V DC, has a speed control knob and a forward/reverse switch. For the thread spool stand, I used the approach that Adler uses for the newer models, running the thread through the center and out the bottom - it works quite nicely.

The bobbin holder has rubber rings (from my garden hose, haha!) to hold the bobbin and the thread while it's winding.

Here's the little video that shows how it works.

Edited September 25, 2015 by Uwe

[Hockeymender]

I have a stand alone, motorized bobbin winder and it's one of the most valuable tools in my shop, wouldn't want to be without it. I can wind bobbins for all my machines on it in very short order. Once you have one of these, you'll wonder how you ever lived without it!

[dikman]

I like it, got me thinking (I have a spare motor from a garage roller door, although it might be a bit of overkill!).

I watched it a couple of times, just so that I could listen to the music - beautiful.

[dirtclod]

Uwe doesn't your machine have a built in bobbin winder ? I do wind some bobbins off of my machine when i do i use a cordless drill with a piece of dowel rod to stick the bobbin on. Not theirs anything wrong with your winder.

[veedub3]

I have one also and it is something that has been super helpful in my shop. When I looked into buying one, they were over $100, and me being the crafty DIY'er that I am, I ordered an industrial table bobbin winder for $9 off Ebay, took the motor and belt from one of the old Singer 15's I had on the shelf, set it up on a board and done.

That is one tool that will always be in my shop.

Karina

[Uwe]

I do have the original Adler bobbin winder that came with the machine that runs off the machine's belt. It does an okay job but not great, despite the fancy cam driven thread guide mechanism. With the large bobbins and 415 thread its hard to get a perfectly wound bobbin on the standard winder and with the thick thread, every winding layer counts.

People use stand-alone bobbin winders for various reasons. The build-in ones that wind as you sew never quite appealed to me. I'd rather have a little stash of wound bobbins sitting ready when I start a sewing project. With the thick 415 thread, you end up changing bobbins fairly often. I also have OCD and a perfectly wound bobbin gives me pleasure, lol!

I had used a hand drill and made little bobbin hooks to wind bobbins. That worked quite nicely to make perfectly wound bobbins, but it was a pain to hold the drill steady and reverse it if the thread reversed direction before it reached the edge of the bobbin. I had seen commercial motorized bobbin winders for the small bobbins and thin thread, but never one for the big shuttle hook style bobbin. So I decided to make one just because, well, SEWING!

Here are some pictures of my little bobbin hook that I used with my hand drill for a while:

Edited September 25, 2015 by Uwe

[dikman]

That closeup makes it look like you're winding rope!

Still waiting for you to say what the music is.

[Constabulary]

Tinkering Uwe - cool idea again! Now everybody is waiting for the parts list / shopping list.

I´m not an electronic buff but maybe with the Version 2.0 you can add a filler tab that pops back when the bobbin is full and a micro switch to stop the motor Just an idea I have no clue if and how it could work but since you are doing a lot of tinkering why not.

[Uwe]

Here's some sourcing info:

I bought the video's background music loop at http://melodyloops.com. This particular piece is called Red Book of Nature by Alex Grey. Youtube keeps flagging me for copyright violations if I use "real" music that is copyrighted (e.g. that "Time" piece by Hans Zimmer.) If you like this kind of piano and strings music, check out Ludovico Einaudi, which is the style of music I was looking for.

The main parts for this project were sourced on Ebay/Amazon:

Buehler 315 RPM Heavy Duty 25 V DC Right Angle Gearhead Motor - 5500 g-cm Torque ($39)

FWD/REV momentary switch ($5)

Aluminum enclosure box ($13) (a little too small, actually)

24V Power supply ($12)

Speed Control unit ($9)

Spool stand (handrail mount) ($12)

Various bits and pieces came from my local hardware, electronics, and hobby stores.

The two-part bobbin holder itself is a combination of a long M4 screw, fender washers, garden hose rubber gaskets, and two pieces of nesting brass tubing (model airplane supply). The tubes slide over the M4 screw and perfectly fill the space between the M4 screw and the inner diameter of the bobbin spool. The drive shaft of the geared motor already has an M4 female thread.

So all together about $100 of materials and countless hours of parts research and tinkering. Not exactly cheap but functional and priceless to me. I can't buy an industrial strength motorized large bobbin winder like this anywhere at any price, as far as I know.

Edited September 26, 2015 by Uwe

[Cascabel]

Well done, Suh !!! My Cowboy sits beside my Singer 42-5, so I just wind the Cowboy bobbins on the 42-5 winder. Like you, I dislike the ones that wind as you sew.