Standalone Bobbin Winders
 

A guild member asked for recommendations for standalone bobbin winders. I have a nice one I like but it won't wind plastic bobbins, and she wants to wind both metal and plastic bobbins.

Anyone out there got a recommendation for her?

I bought the Singer Bobbin winder many years ago. It runs on batteries and plugs in if preferred. It works well for my Singer 15-91, Featherweight, & Janome MC6600P bobbins but not my Viking. I bought it on sale at Joann's at a price that I couldn't pass up. It's nice to have when I forget to wind bobbins before I start a project.
The other day I watched a video on YouTube of a fellow showing his bobbin winder - it looked like mine but it was a different brand and you could change out the bobbin pin for different bobbins. I thought it was a great idea but I'm not in the market for a new one so didn't make any notes.

I use a HimaPro Automatic Bobbin Winder and it works great for winding bobbins for my Elna 500 or my Singer 99. I don't use plastic bobbins so I can't say how it would work with them.

I have a Sidewinder bobbin winder that I stole from my mother :). My Bernina uses the giant bobbins (which I love), but I don't have a lot of them. If I have left over thread that I am not going to use soon, such as green, purple or yellow, I will use the Sidewinder to move that thread to a smaller plastic or metal bobbin from an older machine. Then, when needed, I can wind the thread from the small bobbin back onto a Bernina bobbin. Now infrequently used thread is not taking up valuable bobbin space.

I also have a Sidewinder that I have had since they first same out. I love the way it works on all bobbins and the fact that it runs on batteries so I don't have another cord to deal with.

I use my sidewinder deluxe for my long arm. Mine has a power cord and it has worked just fine for me for 12 plus years. My Bernina's really have good on-board bobbin winders that I love. My Viking onboard bobbin winders were a bit touchier to wind.

I have the older model of the Sidewinder. I took took it apart from the base and added a big weight in the bottom, nothing inside it so there is lots of room. Now it doesn't tip over like it use to when winding and seems to wind better.

the weight is a chunk of metal I found in my husband's shop. It was about the size of a golf ball and heavier then it looked.