Bobbins - which are which
 

I'm cleaning, I know, I know, weird huh!! But am finding lots of bobbins all over the place. I know you need certain bobbins for certain machines. But how do you tell which are which once they are away from the packaging? I have metal and plastic. Some with lots of round holes, some with a little square hole and some with a ribbed/rough top and bottom??????? Which is which and which are for what?? Is there a chart?

If your instruction manual does not say "exactly" which bobbin to use - (or you can't find it in the book)

Hmmm... The taller bobbins are usually for oscillating hook machines. And they usually have 10 holes for Singer and other brand machines, or 7 holes for Berninas. ...although there are some drop-in Singer machines that take the 10-hole bobbin. And the bobbins for oscillating hooks sometimes don't have any holes. If they're rounded on both ends, they are for the older Singers -- although some older Singers do take the 10-hole bobbins. Plastic bobbins are usually for Viking, Husqvarna, Pfaff, Janome and BabyLock. ...and all of the new, cheap Singer and Brother machines. Viking/Husqvarna bobbins are very specific, and have the logo on the plastic. So if it's metal, it's from something older or a Bernina. Singer Featherweights have a short bobbin with lots of holes. Older Vikings have a specific metal bobbin, that's usually flat on both sides, with a little slot.

It's so confusing!

When you put the bobbin in the bobbin case, it should spin freely, and have a very small space above the bobbin, and not have a lot of extra space on the sides.

I'm very careful keeping bobbins separate for my Janome, Kenmore and Brother embroidery machines. I'm not an organized type person but this I'm careful about.

When I wind a new bobbin for which ever machine I put it on the threader and put a dot of nail polish for that machine.
I have red for the singer, green for the brother, and I keep them in the bobbin box with those poney tail bands that I get at the Dollar General. They too come in color and I pick out the color for that machine.

Yes marking the bobbins to the machine would be the best way I think. I have 2 machines, but the bobbins all look different. The Pfaff has plastic bobbins my one Bernina takes metal bobbins and my other Bernina takes the Big Bobbins. I do keep them in special areas with the machines and they each have their own containers. I like the donut holders that stop the thread from unwinding.

This is a problem for me also. Having moved several times and having a number of machines has made the matching process sometimes difficult. I do try to keep my bobbins in separate containers for each machine but the moves have caused some disruption. Hope you (and I) can get them straightened out.

Bearisgray, thanks so much for that link!

Hope you find an organizational system to manage these - one thought, of course I have two machines that use the same plastic bobbin and one that uses the metal, so I don't have the problem. But, I do have embroidery bobbin thread on some and normal thread on others. To distinguish, all embroidery bobbins have a black dot on them. Maybe you can color code them by machine. The other thing I got rid of was having so many bobbins filled with thread I may never use again, or anytime soon. Some one on this board, many moons ago, mentioned using up the bobbins, using them as the thread and the bobbin when piecing. So I have done that and it has become a very manageable thing in my sewing room.

Thank you bearisgrey!!!! That is perfect! Well, maybe not perfect but tremendously helpful!!

Plastic are usually top loading and plastic bobbin cases and metal are usually for front loading metal bobbin cases. Its one of the many reasons I stick with my one brand of machines

I saw a hint somewhere to use the hole reinforcement circles in the school supply section on bobbins to keep track of type of thread. If you write small enough you could put machine info on there also.

I wish that something was stamped or printed on the bobbins - so in case they get mixed up - one has a clue as to what the "model" of the bobbin is.

Some of my machines seem to work equally well with a plastic or a metal bobbin.

Like misspriss I like to color code the bobbins themselves, but do sometimes forget. I also use those silicon ring type bobbin holders and they are marked for thread & machine. Emb is embroidery and then an abbreviation of the DSM for regular thread. Oops, and another for aurifil thread.

I use small rectangular plastic containers to keep my individual bobbins in. Each container has a label on it identifying which machine the bobbins are used for. My metal bobbins are for my vintage machines -- Singers and New Home; the plastic ones are for my new machine -- Janome.

You know, this is one of the great reasons for being on this board - the help given here in response to a question is THE BEST. Thank you, Bearisgray. I am sure many of us have this problem and you have given us invaluable information (the link) to help us figure it out.

You know...I've been asking this question for some time...because I keep purchasing machines from auctions...then some are only good for parts. I have a collection of "parts". So...what I've learned to do, without any book to tell me and it's too confusing to look at the bobbin picture when researching the machine online....my heart uses a bobbin in any machine, if it works GREAT..if not, it goes into a box of "please find a new home" for box....problem solved!

I buy the bobbin boxes at JoAnn's and try to keep them organized. Somehow I still have a few rouge bobbins, I recently found some metal ones with holes and I think they belong to an old Kenmore my mom had years ago. I think I'll start making them with a sharpie.

Moving forward, you can bet I will be marking all new bobbins LOL!! What a mess!

My bobbins say Bernina on the inside. They are metal with etched diamonds inside.

AZ Jane, open your machine and look at the bobbin that's in it now. Then put all the same bobbins in something (I use round candy cans for mine). Then I take painters tape and I list the machine these bobbins will fit in and if the bobbin is metal, plastic and how many holes are in it. I've done the for each of my machines (I have 6), because I had problems too. Then when I'm working with a machine, I pull said can to keep close as I work for changing colors etc...
That's what works for me

My Bernina takes the metal bobbins that came with it and also plastic bobbins that came with my White.
The Featherweight and the 301 use the same bobbins: larger around and thinner.
I have a 10 hole bobbin that is very thick, and don't know what it is for.
The Singer Red Eye needs a thinner bobbin. I don't have that one working yet, so don't know what works in there.

We should have a party for bear-is-gray, this is a quilter who knows! Agree that you should use the bobbin cited in your manual. I always thought that a metal bobbin would be the thing to use so I ordered the correct bobbin in metal instead of plastic to give it a try. Big mistake, there were little (tiny) pieces of metal that got caught on the thread and talk about a "bird's nest?" It was more like a rat's nest. Luckily I didn't buy a bunch. There are two sites online that have charts, one of them is sewingpartsonline. Sorry I don't have the exact link, but if you type that into Google it brings up the site link. I have little colored boxes for bobbins to each machine and a cookie tin for the bobbins for the main machine, all are labeled. Wound bobbins are in those round rubber bobbin holders from Nancy's Notions and other wound bobbins are on the bobbin trees, also from Nancy's notions. Organization is almost a necessity in quilting. That said with such conviction and I find that after each project is completed I have to re-organize because I've pulled out so many tools, etc.

I searched for "sewing machine bobbin info" and that was one of the sites that came up.

My favorite bobbin holder/organizer is something called "the bobbin tunnel" - or "bobbin storage tunnel" - i think the item number is BT60.

SAme here. I have cases marked for my machines as to what bobbins go to what machines. For awhile I had my bobbins attached to my thread. Doesn't work when you want that thread but not the bobbin. Always keep my bobbins separate in a bobbin. just bought couple more cases for my bobbins.

But of course there are exceptions to every rule. My Singer has a metal bobbin case & a plastic bobbin (always did). It is, however, top loading. :o

I have plastic craft boxes like tackle boxes I found in the craft isle at Walmart. I write the name of my machine on them and keep the bobbins for each one in its own box.

Because I ran into that same problem, I have finally gotten them all sorted out and each is kept in its own small plastic container with a TIGHT fitting lid. I then labeled the containers with the matching machine. Good luck getting them figured out, it can be frustrating

My solution for the bobbin problem - and this works well for me...I have (blush) 13 sewing machines and all but 2 of them sew and I try to use them all... rotation as much as I can.........I have EACH machines bobbins in its separate PILL HOLDER..........you get them at the Dollar Store......and on each of those (weekly size ) pill holders, I have the name of the machine taped on, that the bobbins go with,.......so I can easily pick up the weekly pill holder holder that says BERNINA on it, and know that is the correct one........on the Singers, they all have their names, like ANDY (my 1940's little tan 301 from Anderson SC plant( his bobbin case says ANDY on it.....and the PINK GIRL (the Pink Atlas) says PINK GIRL on it..........am I making sense here? the pill boxes, hold a weeks worth of medication so its got the 7 slots and I find that all of the bobbins seem to fit ok in there...KMart and Wally World have them too, but the dollar store is the cheaper one, of course. If you have a lot of bobbins, there is a 2 week size for medications too, I think I saw that at KMart........hope this helps...

For me, the mystery was "what size/style bobbin to get?" when the machine came with one bobbin and no manual.

Thank goodness for places that have listings of what bobbin goes with what machine.

Vinking makes this easy, their machines are listed as series and each one has a different #. I have one that is the #1 and the latest ones have a different #. They are also indented in the middle so its easy to tell at a glance if they are Viking or not. Some machines do have both plastic and metal, my Kenmore does.