I know a few people who read this blog are weavers or spinners who rewind their spinning bobbins before plying and feel like I do that electric weaving bobbin winders in Canada are a little pricey – so I did an experiment this summer. How much would it cost me if I built one?  At first, I opted for the single ended winder.  It looked simpler to build and I didn’t have pirns that needed the support on both ends. I’ll call this prototype #1.

The part that had me stumped for a while was the metal mandrel that the bobbins fit on. Then I came across some 8mm to 5mm couplers that made this possible. I already had the rest of the things here, so my out of pocket cost was about $25. (Half of that was because I stored the first set of 5 blue couplers somewhere super safe and couldn’t find them when I needed them – still can’t! – and had to order another 5 so I could use one).

If I were to build it again (and had to pay full retail using the exact parts I did – assuming I could use a $20ish used motor) – it would be about $105CAD – less than half of the $235CAD that the Leclerc costs.

If I had to pay full retail for a new motor, it would be about $125CAD – or just over half of Leclerc’s price. If you could find mostly used parts (power cord, pedal, motor), you’d probably be looking at around $50-75, less still if you had the wood for the base on hand. I used what was on hand and the retail cost of these items is higher than the build needed to cost.

If a person went in with a few friends to use the 5 couplers that came in a package, it would lower the price per unit even further. Or you know,… didn’t lose the first set?

The bobbin shaft is a made of a 5/16″ (7.93mm) aluminum rod that Ryan ground to shape for me – based on my manual bobbin winder.  Now that we know it’s 110% straight, I’ll be putting some glue in there to make sure it doesn’t move again or letting Ryan practice the brazing he said he wanted to do in the summer.

This particular sewing machine motor has an (approximately) 7mm shaft, so the coupler was drilled out to fit the motor shaft. (This was me deciding on a different motor naturally with a different sized motor shaft after the fact.)  At the same time, Ryan drilled and installed 2 more set screws on each end just for some extra security.  It worked too because before he did this, the rod would sometimes move if I bumped it hard enough by accident with my hands.

The build list:

Based on this list, Cdn Retail would be less than $100 in brand new parts. Buying motor, cord and controller separately – like what I effectively did if I I hadn’t been shopping my “stash” – would increase this cost some.

1. (1) Motor Kit: If I was going to build from scratch and had no parts around, I think the most cost effective is something like the Alphasew FM190 motor kit but I’ve not tested this motor or controller so it’s just a suggestion based on availability. Otherwise, what I used was a 6098FC electronic foot controller, a 143 cord and an old Janome motor with the mounting bracket that I had sitting around for parts that I put a plug on the end of so it could be plugged into the 143 block.  There’s no reason that a rheostat/carbon pile foot control wouldn’t work either. Better still if you had the original cord for the motor and didn’t need the 143 cord which adds bulk when storing the winder.
2. (1) 8mm to 5mm coupler – 5 pack, but we used only one plus the set screws out of a second coupler.
3. (6) wood screws – 1 ¼”
4. (1) wood spacer – the coupler left some space between it and the end of the shaft so this helped stop the possibility of wobble.  I think I would probably use nylon washers though if I rebuilt this.
5. (1) 5/16” x 12” aluminum rod – this looks to have been cut in half. I’d have to go measure it to be sure.  This came from a hobby shop and was used for measuring the ID of some 3d printed items I was making.  It’s not needed anymore so I could re-purpose it. It could also be shorter than this, as the bobbins mostly only use the last 1/3 – 1/2 of the rod.
6. (1) 5 ½” piece of 3×1 maple
7. (1) 12” piece of 4×1 maple
8. (1) plug end (for motor, if applicable as mentioned above)
9. Some sort of sealing for the wood. I plan to use Tung oil, because I have a TON of it!

The winder works great too.  I used it to wind all of these bobbins with the really thick yarn (some Sugar ‘n Cream yarn that had been sitting around for too long) for a recent project.  Of course, if you look closely at this pic, you’ll see why this is a 2 act play…. pirns.

In October, I picked up 4 used End feed shuttles and now had a pirn problem.  The winder above -can- wind these pirns but I need to wrap the mandrel or throw some string down the pirn to get it tight enough.  It’s a bit of a pain.  (Also, as an aside, if anyone recognizes these EFS, I would love to know what the brand is.  The only markings I see are the sticker in the photo that identifies a (no longer in business?) weaving shop called “The Loom” in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.)

So version 2 began to percolate in my mind.  I started on the double ended bobbin winder prototype a couple of weeks ago and will post about that next.

Conclusions:

1. On a $225 single ended bobbin winder, you’re paying about $100-$125 for labour/markup. Neither of which is a bad word – so if it’s worth it to you to save the time and pay someone else to pull metal slivers out of their hands – you know what it’s worth.
2. If you ever thought of building one yourself to save some money (but increase your labour – and wear gloves!! ) – do it. It’s as simple a device as it looks like.  That can let you spend the money you saved on yarn or a reed, which is significantly more difficult to DIY.
3. If anyone wants to build like I did and needs the couplers, I have some spares I could part with, especially if that first bag of couplers ever shows up!

What do you think?  Will you make one or does this make the asking price of a ready-made winder more justifiable?

Oh! And here’s my 5th ever weaving project completely finished (3rd on my refurbished Leclerc Fanny).  I wound about 50 bobbins on the new winder.  This wasn’t the most efficient way to use the yarn, but it saved me using a stick shuttle – which I really suck at.

The details:

• 6 epi in a 5 dent reed
• 6 – 7 ppi
• Yarn: Sugar ‘n Cream in natural (warp and most weft) and white (weft when it became clear I’d miscalculated the amount of weft I needed)
• Threaded as a straight draw: 1,2,3,4,1,2,3,4 etc
• Treadled as tabby, point twill, 2/2 twill, basket weave
• Selvedges got less bad as I went along and eventually stopped touching them – especially with the EFS, so it made the extra work of re-imagining my winder worth the effort.
• 3 hemstitched, 3 were hemmed by hand (with Grey’s help).
• The finished work has roughly the same hand as a dish towel but thicker.  I haven’t decided what they’ll be for yet (placemats, dishtowels, spinning wheel rugs) but they do have inspector approval.