Average Reviews:
(More customer reviews)It appears from the reviews that you either love this little gizmo, or you hate it. I'm afraid I come down on the latter side of the issue.
It should be such a useful little item, and I wish I could recommend it, but I honestly can't. I don't have much patience, but I am known for my creativity, and I exhausted both trying to get this product to work as advertised.
Thinking that my problem was the thread I was using and that the elasticity of nylon might be causing issues with the tension, I tried cotton thread with little more success. At least the nylon thread was easy enough to cut off the bobbin; cotton thread was a pain. I was going to try silk, but I decided even I wasn't that masochistic.
The bobbin tends to wind unevenly because the tension mechanism grabs the thread and becomes jammed. This causes the wildly winding bobbin to bunch the thread into the already assembled mass. Even when the mechanism is winding properly, the jumping of the bobbin creates major loops of thread that then get embedded into the oncoming material. Any thought of putting this mess into a machine would be shear insanity.
It seems highly likely that it is the speed of the winder that causes the problems I've seen. Certainly the ability to control the speed with the switch would have helped with all of the problems I've addressed. Unfortunately it doesn't even turn the machine off, only on, and one has to pop the lever designed to stop the machine when the bobbin is full in order to stop a miss-winding thread from doing any more damage.
This product is such a good idea. As one of the other reviewers notes, it really is a bother to have to unwind and rewind you machine to do your bobbins, and there really isn't any reason the idea shouldn't work. I note that there is a "new" model, but after dealing with this one and spending what I did to purchase it, I find myself unwilling to throw good money after bad should the "new" model work no better than the "old" one did.
A far better plan, certainly a cheaper and less frustrating one and the one I intend to employ, is to wind enough bobbins at the start of my project so that I don't have to use either my machine or a bobbin winder mid-project. Bobbins aren't that expensive, and I could have bought quite a few for what I paid for this device!
A little before its time, perhaps. Definitely needs to work out the bugs.
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Portable Bobbin WinderSidewinder Portable Bobbin Winder. With the touch of a button quickly and easily fill bobbins without having to un-thread and re-thread your sewing machine. The compact size means it fits anywhere making it great for toting to class! The SideWinder is a free-standing machine, comes with a UL-approved AC power cord/adapter (included) or runs on 2 AA batteries (sold separately). Accommodates all bobbins (except Viking) that have a standard round center hole and includes instructions for use. The Sidewinder features a convenient flip top, is white and measures only 3x5-1/4x3-1/2".
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