Hey everyone! First I want to thank everyone for all of the great advice I've been getting from this forum. Hands down the most helpful forum I've been on.

So I'm building a rod wrapping jog and I'm looking for some input on thread tensioners. Right now I'm leaning simply towards screwing some kind of spring down against the thread spools. Maybe it's a ridiculous question but does anybody have a better option? I'm hoping this jig lasts my entire rod building "career" so I may as well build it up the bestt I can the first time around.

I use these on 2 of my carriages

[www.anglersworkshop.com]

The best day to be alive is always tomorrow !!
Think out side the box when all else fails !!!
Wi.

Taylor,
I use one of these "classic sewing machine style thread tensioners." [www.mudhole.com]

As long as the thread is not metallic thread, this device works very very well. I have used the same spring tensioner for wrapping many many many rods over the years.

This tensioner is essentially identical to the design that is used on every sewing machine, embroidery machine that is used to make millions of pieces of clothing every day. If it works for millions of sewing machines it can and does work very well for any non metallic thread.

A nice feature of this type of thread tensioner is that it takes only a couple of seconds to change a thread spool. Clip the thread, swap the spool, thread the thread through the guide and pull the thread into the tension disks.

I never do full thread wraps with metallic thread - trim bands only - so it is not a big deal.

I have used this same thread stand with tensioner for all of the years that I have wrapped rods and it works perfectly every day. The base is a block of nylon with the tension stand attached to it with a pair of right angle brackets.
The thread spool sits on a stainless rod and is routed through a guide up to the tension device. The nice thing about this type arrangement, is that when you snip a thread that you are wrapping, the tag end, is right in front of you to pick up to do the next wrap.

if a mistake is made, the wrapper is reverse, the rod backs up and tension is applied to pull the thread back through the tension device to keep the thread tight and off you go again.

[www.rodbuilding.org]

The rod building bench is a smooth laminate counter top and the nylon base of the thread stand slides easily along the bench top sliding against the back side of the wrapper base.

Be safe



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 02/18/2018 10:13AM by roger wilson.

I enjoy my @#$%& magnetic tensioner for hand wrapping, can't use one on a power wrapper.

I made a spring and washer tensioner and it works fine. It must be locked with double nuts or the tension will change.

Why would a sponsor's product end up as gibberish? All American Guide's thread tensioner.

Here is what Spencer is talking about. [www.allamericanrollerguides.com]
Norm

What part is not being understood?

Lots of awesome replies here. I think I'm going to play around with a few of these options and use whichever works best for me.

Spencer, your comments on metallic thread actually remind me of another question I have. I'm working on a build with copper trim bands and I'm finding that they leave a little white, frayed spot wherever I trim off the tag ends. I've played around with it some but can't quite get it as clean as I like. Any idea of what could be causing this? Or what is needed to fix it? I'm not using a tensioner to make the trim bands but I have noticed that even along unused lengths of the thread there are often little bits where the metallic wrapping has seperated from the white core underneath.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 02/18/2018 03:24PM by Taylor Nielson.

Have you tryed spinning the thread to check and see if its unwound letting the metal mylar become loose from the carrier thread underneath. This may allow the to stretch more and the mylar to simply slip and slide loosely about the carrier.

Taylor,
For all of my thread trimming, I use a sharp micro point pair of Dr. Slicks fly tying scissors. [www.drslick.com]

By using scissors, I can get very close to the thread wraps without having to worry about putting a nick in any of the other threads.

Whenever I tie off a wrap, I like to have 6-10 wraps over the thread and I pull the tag end very tight and then snip it with the scissors right against the previous wraps.

I do the same thing for the trim bands. For both ends of the trim band,I also make sure that I have 6-10 wraps of the main thread over the tag ends of the metallic thread, then I hold it under tension and snip it clean next to the existing wraps.

But holding tight and trimming this way, I have no inner core, or the white thread showing after trimming. As a matter of fact, because of the tension that I hold on the thread when trimming there is little to no tag end showing above the previous wraps, because the tension tends to pull the tag end back under the previous wraps.

You will notice that I do 6-10 thread wraps over both ends of the trim bands. This means that I put a pull thread under the main wrap for each trim band that I am going to do so that I can pull each trim band tag end back under the main wraps individually.

I have tried pulling 2 or 3 tag ends back under the main wraps at the same time but most of the time, I find I have less than perfect results. So, I take the additional time required for a separate pull thread under the main wraps for each trim wrap that is being pulled back and the results on the finished product are fine.

For all of the trim bands, the bands are made by hand and the tension is made by my hand and not a separate tensioner.

Good luck

How many spools do you load or keep on your devise at one time?

How many spools do you load up at one time?