I have an American power wrapper and the thread axles on the carriage are not long enough to hold a Madeira spool. What do you guys do? Rethread on an old wood spool? Use a sewing machine bobbin? Seems for as nice a lathe as this, they would have thought of accommodating larger thread spools. And too four spools. Has someone released a retro kit with longer axles? Or is there a nicer carriage out there somewhere?

Hi, Phil,
This is how I modified my carriage for Madeira thread; I later had to add another mod when the spool I.D. changed

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"It ain't what you don't know that gets you into trouble.It's what you know for sure that just ain't so." Mark Twain
John in Wethersfield, CT

If I'm using the thread tensioner, and the thread spools shown in the pictures, that came on the carriage I've found no need to have longer shafts, I can see the need if your using the big, commercial size spools though.

Phil,
I use a different tension device for use on my power wrapper.

To hold commercial size spools of thread, I used the following stand:

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Basically, this thread stand is nothing more or less than a copy of the thread stand that is used on commercial sewing machines that use thread spools of this size.

For use on sewing machines, the thread is pulled off the top of the spool. No erratic tension due to weight of the spool turning or any other issue.

I just leave the stand behind my power wrapper and then route the thread forward to my thread tension device.

When I use my power wrapper, I essentially leave the thread in place and move the rod by the thread. So no need to be able to move the thread since the thread remains fixed and the rod on the wrapper moves.

Be safe

I have the older "original" model 4 vertical shaft set up & it works just fine. They still sell them / they are available. The original will hold one 4oz spool as well as 3 other smaller spools - or 4 small spools at the same time.

Ken,

I found a picture in the Mud Hole catalog. You have to rethread the tensioner each time you run a different color? What are the plastic spacers for? Did you modify it in any way? Wonder if it would be possible to stack tensioners somehow.

I thought I could use sewing machine bobbins, so I filled three on my wife's sewing machine. Busted! The I.D. is too small to fit the shaft! I keep hitting brick walls at every turn. Maybe I should have gone Renzetti. AT really needs to sit down and reengineer this carriage: four spools, individual tensioners/guides, to accommodate multiple spool lengths/outside diameters, and to accommodate multiple spool I.D.s, take some of the slop out of the carriage way/roller engagement, and incorporate a degree wheel. Good project for an Mechanical Engineering student. Aside from my beef with the carriage, I like the wrapper - so far.


Regards,
Phil

You can run up to 3 threads through the tensioner at the same time - but it's a little troublesome if the threads are different diameters or if they are NCP. Plastic spacers? None came with my original (15 years ago) model .. but I would never give up on the vertical shafts. What you can do --- real cheap is replace the existing tensioner with a simple eyelet & apply tension directly to the spools. One way to do that was outlined by Doc Ski using simple paper clips another way that was posted over 2 years ago was to use magnets to apply tension to the top of the smaller spools. If you have any mechanical skills another approach might be to either thread the existing shafts & thread on a wingnuts or replace the shafts with threaded rods & wing nuts. The vertical shafts come out easily... Understand these are just ideas as I still use mine 'as original' (almost). What I showed people last year at the Expo was how to adjust the center roller so that the carriage rolls smoothly along the blank for "hands off" under wraps.

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Very Nice set up I looked again gave me some ideas for my home made one

Bill - willierods.com



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/22/2014 11:55AM by bill boettcher.