Horizontal spool holder

[dikman]

This seemed like the logical place to put this, if not feel free to move it mods.

Following on from kgg's post elsewhere, I made a horizontal spool holder. The tube is a bit thin-walled steel tube that I had, a short stub was turned down to fit in the end and then that was turned further to fit a bearing from my scrap bearing box. The bearing and stub axle were fitted using Loctite bearing retainer (so they won't fall off!). A piece of thick-walled pipe was turned down to be a snug fit over the bearing, a short bar welded to the back and a bolt welded to the bar. Figuring out how to attach it to something, so that it could be moved between machines, had me scratching my head for a bit. Then I found a couple of old steel bushings from an old lathe (I don't throw things out very often!) and the inside diameter was a perfect fit over two of the existing thread supports. One was machined and drilled, cut in half and then one half tapped. A couple of screws with their heads cut off and wing nuts loctited to them gave me the clamping screws. A short bar welded to the tapped half finished off the mounting.

I just need to cut a couple of rubber washers to locate either side of the spool to keep it in place and that's it.

 

[trash treasure]

I like that !

I have an old Pfaff 130, with a horizontal spool holder, and it always seemed more logical to have the thread unwind that way, without twisting. I may just have to engineer something like that for the shop machines

[kgg]

A really nice job, excellent refinement over my method. It is sturdy, basic, portable and functional. Did you find you had to adjust the top thread tension any or was there really no additional thread tension introduced?

This is what I think the forum is really about having a question / problem, finding / offering a solution and then the refinement of that solution. In this case the:

Problem: Thread going underneath thread spool / tangling particularly for 8 oz black bonded nylon thread and portability.

Solution: Put the spool horizontally which is a more natural unwinding position as the thread spool was filled horizontally during the manufacturing process. Placing the spool horizontally does remove the counter clockwise thread twisting action as the thread unravels from the spool which in turn would reduce / eliminate thread springiness or spring back.

 kgg

[dikman]

I haven't tried it yet, but there's very little tension when just pulling thread off by hand. If the spool is heavy enough then the bearing rotates, if the spool is smaller/lighter with less weight and doesn't turn the bearing then it just rotates around the tube, still with very little tension. I don't think I will have to compensate much, if at all, for increased thread tension.

tt, feel free to use the idea, no patents involved.

[RockyAussie]

Should be able to print something like that ......re the rubber washers you may need smooth leather backing to reduce friction where it touches. With gold embossing foil on the automatic feed they often use a spring as well to set the friction just lightly.

[dikman]

There ya go! Another 3D printer project for you! As for the rubber washers rubbing, as long as the tube is rotating, courtesy of the bearing, then the rubber rotates with it.

[RockyAussie]

Tempting except that I don't have any problems with the thread curling around and such. Possibly if I could do a multi revolver or something along that line might be of interest. A bit along the revolving bobbin holder and revolving from the centre on its side?

[dikman]

That could work, for those that might swap between multiple spools - but it would be a rather large construction! Better off designing a simple single spool unit so the user could make several and fit one to each machine? 3D printing one would certainly be easier than my effort, which took a couple of days and a lot of work (and sweat, it still gets warm in my sheds at the moment).

[chrisash]

Knocked this up on Fusion 360 as a idea, either screwed to table base or g-clamp, with maybe 6mm steel rod with bolts either end to hang loose, about 220 mm width of base, easy to change thread and weight of thread should stop it pulling out

 

[RockyAussie]

9 hours ago, chrisash said:

Knocked this up on Fusion 360 as a idea, either screwed to table base or g-clamp, with maybe 6mm steel rod with bolts either end to hang loose, about 220 mm width of base, easy to change thread and weight of thread should stop it pulling out

 

The drawing is excellent and idea is good. There would be some trouble though perhaps printing in the air where it curls over. You could do it with a lot of supports but better if you can design it out. Just the holes would be OK and sliding the rod through perhaps?