Hi Karen - I'm sorry to hear that your thumbs are causing you problems!
I have one of John Beswick's winders, and it is a clever gadget. But... before I go in to any report on its abilities (or not) to wind all bobbins, it would probably be better to hear from you what bobbins you are having to wind the most these days, and we can give you our collective wisdom on which winders would be best for you. Having said that (as I re-read my response...), I've gone on to "tell all..." Over the years, I've realized that I must have had either a fascination for or a frustration with winders in the "early years"! Not only did I have the black (plastic?) (Newnam?) winder that is reasonably priced, and a practically free "reproduction" of a very early winder, but I also managed to buy "previously used" winders which are extremely well made and work surpurbly... on some bobbins (and are very expensive when bought new). I have a "worm-gear" German winder that is my favorite for winding Binche bobbins,because it can load a lot of thread in a short time, and is gentle to the bobbins. I also have a lovely Swedish winder with its gears hidden within the housing and the part which holds the bobbin made of wood. This is a wonderful winder for bigger continentals (but is too big for Binch, unfortunately, because it is quieter and has a smoother action than the German winder). Neither of these work for spangled bobbins, which I use so seldom, that when I do, it is a gre at production of choosing the loveliest that I have and winding them by hand so as not to damage the decorations. The main attraction to the Beswick winder, for me, was the engineering that went in to the little thing! It is not only small, but comes apart into three pieces (no screws or clamps required to assemble!), and the parts fit snugly together in their own little storage bag. The handle even folds up into one of the sections! The winder was designed primarily for spangled bobbins, but he quickly filled the need for an attachment that made it work with continentals as well. And... it can be oriented to work for either right-handed or left-handed workers. The one drawback is that the handle is very small, is "geared" to the bobbin by a rubber band, and one turn of the handle is equal to little more than one turn of the bobbin. So it does not save much effort, although it does not require quite as much repetitive motion in the thumb as manual winding would. I've taken my winder with me when I traveled (and actually used it!) and the only system I've ever seen that impressed me mor e (with regard to ingenuity) was the elegantly simple one discussed some time back where the bobbin is wound by a "pulley system" made of the very thread it is winding. That's a trick I hope to learn one of these days... and it has been around for centuries! I've watched it done, made a video of the demonstration, watched that, downloaded instructions and printed them... and have not translated that to being able to do it myself!! (It has not been a priority... bottom line...) So my recommendations, in order of cost effectiveness, would be to scout out the last trick I mentioned, or to find the winder (from my list above and from those others send you) for the type bobbin you use most. Good Luck!! Clay -- Clay Blackwell Lynchburg, VA USA -------------- Original message -------------- From: "Karen" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > Please can we have more details of John Beswick's bobbin-winder. > I have a bobbin winder of the locally produced type and I find that it does > not hold all types of bobbins correctly. So, you guessed, I need another one > that will hold all kinds of bobbins properly. At present I am winding > bobbins manually and because I have problems with my thumbs - it can get > really painful for me. > Thanks, > Karen in Malta. > - To unsubscribe send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] containing the line: unsubscribe lace [EMAIL PROTECTED] For help, write to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
