Bobbin Issue
 

What causes a bobbin to wind uneven and what can be done to correct that?

There are many things that can happen. The bobbin itself can be misshapen. More usually there is a problem in the winding, a loose belt/gear, wrong threading, too much tension on the thread (if you hold the tail end, that freaks out some machines but is needed to start on others), and sometimes there is actually a problem with the spool/cone or how you have set that.

My friend's long arm supposedly had the "wind bobbin while you sew" option or direct bobbin threading as well. We tried everything but could not wind a decent bobbin to save our lives and decided to try prewound bobbins which worked very well for us. The size of her bobbins is M, which is not something I can locally find often (15 and L are common here) so I ordered direct from Superior Threads. Some machines are pickier than others and don't like other bobbins, so far all of machines that can fit prewounds have done fine. My Bernina has a proprietary bobbin and I can't buy prewounds for it, which I would personally consider a negative if I had the embroidery unit.

I bought a low end Brother in a box at the Goodwill for $20. Turned out the bobbin winder on it was pretty much useless, oh it made noise and spun around but it didn't really work. I bought a Simplicity Sidewinder for then about $25... It makes a big difference on whether the batteries are strong or not, but on a stable surface and using a standard spool of thread (haven't gotten good results from a cone) it winds a reasonable bobbin and makes the sewing machine a workable option.

Here's a site that compares different bobbin winders, including the Sidewinder
https://craftsmenxp.com/best-bobbin-winder/

I think it depends on the machine. Is it winding unevenly as in loose and tight or is it because there is more thread on one edge than the other? In the case of the former, it is generally because of speeding up and slowing down of the foot controller. It could also be that it is not feeding evenly off the spool or is catching on something. Is the spool parallel or cross wound? Is the spool pin horizontal or vertical?

If the unevenness is because it is more thread at top or bottom, many times there is an adjustment shown in the manual. One example would be like as shown as "Correct and incorrect bobbin winding" at https://www.sewusa.com/Threading_Dia...ng_Diagram.htm

You could also search for "uneven bobbin winding" and then the name of your machine.

As a side note, I wound a bobbin for my Junker & Ruh on a Sidewinder. This isn't the best picture as it doesn't show that the opening for the thread is only about 1/8" wide.

Attachment 627075

Janey - Neat people never make the exciting discoveries I do.
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One thing I discovered on some bobbins they don't have the cut out area that aligns a bobbin to the bobbin winder and that will cause a mess. The wrong size bobbin will also do that . The bobbin may look like it is the right size but it may not be. These are problems I have run into a few times. I will usually wind a hundred bobbins at a time and out of that 100 or so I will occasionally find one or two failures. I then toss those bobbins. I do use a good number of pre-wounds too.

OurWorkbench is always so good with the machines! Another good point by Juliasb, some machines require a hole in the bobbin at a certain place, you can still get it going but not quite placed correctly with the smooth side.

I've had issues with my Sidewinder loading the bobbins in a V shape, in my case that was when the batteries were low, I just did an extra direction of the thread with my finger at first -- now I replace/recharge the batteries more often. The Brother just made a loose rat's nest of tangled up handfuls of thread before it gave up and considered it full.

The same friend with the long arm had two higher end Brothers, one an embroidery machine. The bobbins looked so alike but were just very slightly different and while both fit both machines, the wrong ones did give fits to the wrong machines. Her life became better when she threw out all her old bobbins and bought new ones, marking one of the machines with permanent markers.

Be sure the thread is feeding to the bobbin winding with the right tension. Prewounds save money in the long run. More thread per bobbin and wound perfectly.

Do you have the correct bobbin for your machine? It's easy to get them mixed-up with multiple machines.

Do you need to wrap the thread around a post in a criss-cross manner? I miss that part sometimes.

Picture to follow.

Mine have a screw on the side by the bobbin that is used to make the thread wind evenly. I have never had to do anything with it.

I do have 2 screws close to bobbin winder, I would guess one is for filling the bobbin, haven’t tried changing either one.

There should be a tension to engage somewhere between you spool of thread and the bobbin. Make sure the thread is engaging that tension before you start winding the bobbin.

Regarding tossing bobbins that didn't wind correctly, you could use the bobbin on the spool holder and just sew with the thread (rather than throwing away). Also, the only time I have made a mess winding a bobbin it was because I hit the foot pedal too hard (going too fast).

I'm actually dealing with my own bobbin issue myself right now, do be sure to take a moment and make sure your bobbin is correct for your machine. I bought a set of 50 Class 15's that would normally fit my machine, but discovered the hard way that once I got the bobbin wound and then put into my machine, there's something wrong with the bobbin itself. It didn't feed the thread through smoothly like others that I've had and it caused bird's nesting, a lot of broken bobbin threads and was just a general pain. Once I put one of my older ones in that I knew would fit, I didn't have that problem again.

Now that I got that off of my mind (lol), there's a way to adjust the tension when you wind a bobbin, usually a screw, mine I just move either to the left or the right and it'll feed it correctly.

Some machines just are finicky about bobbin winding. My Bernina's almost always are good and wind the bobbin fully and tightly and evenly. My Vikings have been more of a problem. I get some lop sided bobbin winding there and my friends who have Vikings also have problems. However, even lopsided, it usually stitches just fine. I use a Sidewinder Deluxe for my long arm. And it took a while to find the sweet tension on the winder itself. Now, most of the time I can wind decent bobbins. I have thought of having my Bernina do all the bobbin winding around here but really don't want to put the wear on the bobbin winding part. I did have a bobbin that was out of round. Sometimes they just come that way and sometimes it could be because I bounced it off the floor one too many times. I have purchased extra bobbins for all my machines....and actually, for the machines I can, an extra bobbin case. Oh, and also, make sure you have the thread fully inserted in any tension discs in the bobbin winding path.

I have several machines and at least 20 bobbins for each. When the bobbins of various colors become almost empty or I know I won't be using that color thread for another bobbin I use them for the top thread (I use a Bobbinator) to get them empty again. It doesn't matter what color thread you use to piece unless it's all white or pale fabric.