Well, Santa was good to me this year and dropped off a new Nor-Vise Automatic Bobbin. I had one, but wanted another to allow me to switch colors of tread while on the same fly and not lose the functionality of the auto bobbin. The new bobbin came with a hub that I guess you put in a drill which I have or the actual Nor-vise, which I don’t to wind the thread on the spools.
How do you put the thread on the spools if no Nor-vise vise? Drill?? or a home made spool winder of some sort???
I am guessing that with all the talented folks here and gadget/machinery I have seen pictures of, you have a home made spool winder of some sort. If you do, do you have a picture of it? I am looking for suggestions, the drill is a little cumbersome when you only have two hands.
I’m not really sure what you’re asking, but I’ll give it a try anyway. If you have the winding hub that fits into a drill, then you’re in business. Slip the spool onto the winding hub and tighten the hub into the drill. Then start your thread by hand. Once the thread is started, pull the trigger on the drill (hopefulyl a variable speed drill) and spool up our thread. When you put the spool onto the actual bobbin hub. have it so that the end of the thread is going off the left side of the spool as it is facing you. This will make sure that it rewinds properly when you lift the bobbin while tying. I love the Nor-Vise system and once I got used to using the Nor-Vise bobbins (about ten minutes), then I really hate going back to the old style. Excellent products! You can of course use the Nor-Vise bobbins without the Nor-Vise vise, but it sure makes a great system when put together. If you did not get the winding hub, then you can wind the thread by hand, but it takes much longer.
Please feel free to ask more questions if I did not answer your questions properly.
Yup, that is what I got, the ceramic bobbin, 3 spare spools and the hub. I never got the hub with the first Nor-vise bobbin I got 10 years ago so I used a 1" diameter rubber sanding drum from the woodworking bench, mounted in a drill and then spooled the thread on after that.
I agree, these things are great, been using one for years with my Renzetti Saltwater. I was just wondering if anyone had a couple problems that I have once in a while (not all the time maybe when I am tired), when I wind the thread onto the Nor-vise spool with the drill, it winds a little too loose or too tight or too much to one side or the other, basically not filling the spool evenly. I know that it has to do with the way that I hold the drill in line with the spool, speed of the drill, etc. When I wind the thread on, I keep tension with my finger on the spool I am winding “off” of and the drill keeps the tension on the Nor-vise spool.
I got to thinking as I was tying flies last night while my wife was loading her sewing thread for the sewing machine using the spooling system it has built in, that I need to have a spooling system with constant thread tension, in-line, etc. to load my new spools and refill the ones I had.
I thought maybe the folks here had similiar thoughts or built a little “sewing machine spooling” system of their own for the Nor-vise bobbins to get the nice even spool fill. Thoughts?
I use a variable speed cordless drill to load my Nor-Bobbin spools. I have noticed that if I apply to much tension to the thread I over heat the thread, and if it’s a prewaxed thread, can cause some problems.