Hiow to mount bobbin to shaft?

[David King]

Rewind,

There is absolutely no reason to use ball bearings on a pickup winder as long as your shaft is smooth and round. You can buy hollow bronze or brass with the correct O.D., drill 5/8" and ream the I.D. with an adjustable reamer (ebay). You can also buy precision ground shafting and ball bearings races with whatever O.D. matches your machine.
Cheaper Russian-made bearing and shafting can be purchased on-line from VXB Ball Bearings:Miniature bearings:Ceramic Bearings:Bearing . Top quality bearings and shafting can be had from E. B. Atmus in Springfield, MA ENGINE ROOM . If you are lazy you can buy everything you need from McMaster Carr. ( http://mcmaster.com )

Those spindles that Grizzly sells are absolute crap, everything will bump and wobble. If you insist on Grizzly get the heavy duty spindle with the cast iron bearing block and real bearings (the 3/8" version is more than enough).

[ReWind]

Thanks for the detail and the links, David. ...especially about the Grizzly spindle. McMaster is a great site. I will definitely check out VXB and Atmus! Thank you kindly.

Bump and wobble is exactly the problem I have with the current bearings. ...I can pretty much feel the flat spots. It must have taken a blow at some point, perhaps in shipping. It's an old winding machine that was originally made to wind heavier gauge coils. It has a place where a name plate and possibly serial number sat, but it was removed before I acquired it so I'm not sure the make/model. It's nothing too fancy though, a few gear options, a traverse section, and a counter in a cast iron chassis. I'm restoring and modding it for pickup use. I'll try to get the existing bearing assemblies pulled this weekend and find the right size replacements.

Even with the wobble and a poorly secured bobbin on the shaft (before I received the plastic discs) I was able to get just over 200 turns of wire on the bobbin before it turned into a copper hairball. Baby steps, but progress nonetheless!