Rose_P

This is so simple that others may have also come up with it. If so, sorry to duplicate. I have an old Bernina 830 and my mom's even older Elna Supermatic. Both have upright spindles. If you have a machine with horizontal spindles where the thread is not supposed to turn, I'm not sure how this would work.

My local store was out of spool adapters when I needed one. In order to use Coats and Clark machine quilting cotton, and other large-hole spools on a small spindle I wrap the bristly side of some self-adhesive Velcro around a piece of tubing that just fits my spindles. It takes a few seconds to make and has worked well for me.

You need just enough Velcro to make a tight but easy fit inside the spool. In this case I went around the tube about 3 times. The Velcro glue side stuck to the bristles better than I expected.

I use a pair of needle nose pliers or tweezers to pull it out of my spools, but if you take the labels off both ends you could just push it through. I had some old tubing around the house, so I'm not sure of the size, but it appears to be 1/4" inch. The inner dimension has to fit well over your spindle, allowing it to turn freely. It's cheap at any hardware store and also sold at pet supply places for use in aquariums. To be sure of the size, you could take an ordinary thread spool to the store with you and find tubing with the same dimension as the hole in the spool. I hope this is a useful.

Here are a couple of pictures. The tube I happened to have on hand is black, but most of it that you find is clear.

mymsmess

Wow. Neat Idea

mom-6

I did a similar adaptation using the sticky back craft foam.

BellaBoo

I found pieces of clear plastic tubing in DH's shop. One tube fit over my spindle and another tube fit over that tube that fit the spool of thread. I've used it for years. Spool adapters are expensive for what they are.

amma

Very clever!! Thank you for sharing with us :D:D:D

jolo

I use a wooden dowel that fits into the spool of thread and then sets on my spindle. Works like crazy and almost no cost for a long piece of ddowel and then cut it .

drdolly

I took one of those spools of thread with me to Wal-Mart. In their craft section they have dowels. Fitted a dowel to the inside of the thread. Bought the dowel, marked the center, made sure I had the right drill bit (same size) as spindle to machine, and cut the piece the length needed. Drilled a hole down the center of the dowel and have several dowels the size needed for my thread.

ontheriver

Another thing to try, my sweetie took a wooden dow that fit inside the thread, cut a piece the length of the spool, then drilled a hole in it through the length so it would fit over the spindle on my machine. Now I can put larger spools on my antique machine. works so good I had him make one to fit every spool size for every one of my machines.

Rumbols

Love your suggestion. I have been using the inside of an empty Gutterman spools (small or medium size). I twist the bottom inner piece (down where you wind the thread when done with spool) and give it good twist and pull. This pulls the inside out and makes a perfect adapter for the larger spools. When I need to use a machine where the spool lays down, I use two of these end to end in the spool and they help it to ride smoothly. I also use the rest of the spool to wind ribbons on for storage. Hope this is clear for everyone.

EC

I've been told to stick a drinking straw over my spindle and then whatever spool/cone you are using. Works for me!