was just wondering does thread have a shelf life .i have some older spools of thread both ncp and nylon that seem to squeek in the thread cart when i was using the pac bay lathe i thought it was the cart and now im using the clemmins 8 spool cart it is dooing the same thing .the thread gets fuzzies and comes out kinda flat and there is dust on the guid ring on it . if i back off what i normaly use as tension it isnt as bad but it still isnt normal. any thoughts ? thanks

I have a few partial spools of Gudebrod nylon in seldom-used colors that were produced when the thread was wound on wooden spools. Gudebrod changed to plastic or foam spool probably 20 years ago (give or take a year or two) but the thread is still good. My taste in color must not have changed much over time because I still don't like them so I use them occasionally under a marbled finish. I wonder if how and where the thread was stored may have some bearing on how it's performing? If it was just one spool that's getting fuzzies then I would be temped to blame a bad spool of thread but you seem to be describing the same occurrance with several spools. Mine has been pretty much at room temperatures and out of exposure to strong UV light. The shelf life of nylon thread may be impacted somewhat by what type of environment they're stored in but from my experinece it will retain something very close to its' original properties for quite a while.

would like to know this too .. i have some 100yd spools of gudebrod from 10-13 years back .. the threads have been kept in a rubbermaid/plano box since i bought them, and out of sunlight.. it's still with me, though i have switched to using the 950yds spool

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Give a man a fish, he'll eat for a day..
Teach a man to fish, he'll be broke!

I also suspect that a great deal of the "shelf life" has to do with storage conditions. I too have a bunch of the Gudebrod 1,200 yd. wooden spools. About 30 of them are still sealed in plastic bags. I opened one this morning (royal blue) and it went on the rod just fine. No fuzzies, no squeaks. None of the thread is NCP however. I don't know if that would make a difference or not.

THis isn't your problem, but I have a lot of thread on wooden spools, and the thread always feeds off of them herky jerky. It seems the washers "stick" to the spool. One thing that has helped is touse 2 washers on each side of teh spool so they can rotate smoothly, even if one washer is sticking to teh spool.

If you keep your thread dry and out of the sunlight, it will last for many, many years.

Even those spools that have been UV damaged, or that might even have a bit of mildew on top, can often be returned to usable condition just by stripping off the top couple layers of thread.

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Mark,
1. If the nylon thread is stored out of sunlight, the thread life should be nearly indefinite.
2. If your spool squeeks on the lathe, and if you are using a tensioner that relies on spring tension on the ends of the spool, you can elinimate the squeek, by using multiple nylon washers on the end of the spool. Otherwise, with a tension spring on the thread itself, you should have no issues.
3. Fuzzies can be found on both old thread as well as bad spools of new thread. If you do get fuzzies, when the thread is under tension - pitch the thread and don't look back. Bad thread can be on new spools or old spools. Anytime that a person uses a spool of thread that they haven't used before or for a long time, be sure to examine the line under a magnifying glass under considerable tension. If you see little fuzzies coming off the sides of the thread, you can be sure that it will only be worse, when wrapped and coated. Take the thread and throw it in the garbage.
Every now and then, a bad spool comes through. Not often, but if you find one, get it into the garbage and out of your rod shop before it gets wrapped on a rod and ruins a nice wrap.

Take care
Roger