What is the purpose of the spring or wire that the thread goes through before it meets the rod??

"The early bird gets the worm,.. but the second mouse gets the cheese!"

" The early bird gets the worm, ... but the second mouse gets the cheese! "
- Priceless !!!
(That's why the pioneer / innovator is at more risk than the follower / replicator. )

It is used to maintain thread tension if you have to back off a few wraps while wrapping

Mike.. it was designed to maintain tension on the wrap when straight pressure from the wrapper had to be slackened (backing up to re-wrap a gap,etc.). Iwas never able to adequately get adjusted to it myself,-or the multiple thread feed system,for that matter- and usually wrap simply by holding the spool in my hand or using a bobbin. I,too,would appreciate hearing from the guys who've found these options useful.Barry

I made my springamajig (need to copywrite that word, that's a good one!) out of one leg of an umbrella rig. The same kind of rig that guys around here use to troll for striper. Just bent it a little and twisted the eye on the end aroound 90 degrees. I find it to work very well. In combination with the tension on the spool, I can control the thread tension well, and back up if needed about 5 turns. Still wish I had one of those Renzetti's though.

There's a couple aspects that relate to thread tension.

One relates to tension on the thread itself, and the other related to applying "back-tension" on the thread when you're have over-wraps, etc., to help maintain the perfect wrap you've already made.

There are several ways to handle both aspects of thread tension.

My preference is to tension the thread spool itself for the first, which is probably less traumatic to the thread.

For "back-tensioning", there are a number of ways to help out, using some sort of spring apparatus to take up slack as you unwind the thread you've wrapped - to prevent the "good" threads from losing wrap tension. Easier demonstrated than described in words. Not much to it.

I use a lawn mower throttle cable. Hacksaw blades, screen door springs and other spring materials might work well also to maintain thread tension when correcting "professional over-runs".

No one way is best. Have fun messing around with it and deciding what works for you.

Stan

I havent built a rod yet, but I've done about 100 wraps ranging from 1/8in on up to 2in, on whats left of a cheap wal-mart-ish rod. I built my wrapper, first with just a mousetrap for tension. Later I used O rings, a spring, a bolt, a nut and beveled washers for the tensioner.
And I used a weedeater throttle wire for the springamajig. It wasnt stiff enough by itself though, but it was long enough that I just doubled it over, and twisted it, making it double the tension. Works perfect. Coulda been longer though, as I can only back up about 3 turns on a 1/4in diameter section of rod. But thats all I've really needed to back up.

If you need to back up more, you can always manually backreel your main spool to put flex back into your springamajig and then back up some more.....as many times as needed...

I like that Stan ( professional overuns ) nice way to say Boo Boo's LOL

I use a spring off a fly tying lamp.

Bill, the term "professional over-runs" is not original with me. I think i read something written by Tom that called them that.