Hello - Looking for some ideas/suggestions. I have a Pac Bay power wrapper (a few years old) and it is hard to manually rotate the rod by hand. If the blank diameter, where I am wrapping is large enough, I can rotate by hand (with some effort), but as I get closer to the tip, trying to turn by hand starts to torque the blank and it will not turn (unless I risk damaging the blank). When the O ring is removed, the blank turns easily. I have tried to stretch to O ring, but it doesn't really stay "stretched". Any other ideas?

I have the same issue. I modified my thread carriage and installed a thread tension rod so I could move down the blank and turn by hand while still maintaining tensionon the thread as I back up. If I'm hand turning a guide from start to finish, I use large hair bands and loop over the rod at the supports and attach to the wing nuts. This provides enough tension on the blank to keep it from backing off as I'm wrapping.
I'd love to hear what others have to say!

Chris,
Not the answer that you would like to hear, but the solution for myself was to remove the current motor and replace it with a DC gear motor, speed controller foot pedal and power supply.

I just don't care to wrap by hand at all and with the use of the gear driven DC motor and controls, I have precise controls to be able to do what is needed for any wrapping chores.

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But, if you don't want to do that and exchange the motor - simply remove the O ring. Then, take the O ring to the plumbing department of a big box or hardware store and buy several O rings in the same and larger sizes.

From the hardware store these O rings are quite inexpensive.

[www.acehardware.com]

[www.menards.com]

[www.amazon.com]

Then, with the selection of O rings that you have purchased, find an O ring that will work all right for wrapping but is loose enough to be able to let it slip when needing to hand wrap.

Also, if you use a larger O ring that is just short enough to prevent most slipping, it will be easy to pop off and wrap by hand when needed.

As long as you are wrapping and not turning a grip, the O ring does not have to be very tight at all for excellent service.

You could also experiment with going to a much smaller in size O ring. i.e, if you have an O ring that is 1/4 inch in diameter, try one that is 3/16th, or 1/8th of an inch in diameter. Again, these O rings do not have to be drum tight to do a very good job of wrapping.

You only need the larger and heavier O ring for the extra power needed when turning a grip.

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p.s.
Here is a picture of the power head that I built some years ago for wrapping rods.

[www.rodbuilding.org]

This unit employs an industrial 1/2 inch keyless chuck. If wrapping a rod with no butt cap, I will chuck in a piece of tapered rod and insert the tapered rod into the butt of the rod blank that I am wrapping to secure the rod for wrapping.
If wrapping a rod that has a butt cap on it, I use this Taig 3-jaw chuck - the same one used by Renzetti and other manufacturers - to hold the rod. I insert a "shank, with a 3/4x16 thread per inch on the chuck end and a smooth 1/2 inch shaft on the other end to fit into the keyless chuck. Then, the shaft on the keyless chuck has a 2 inch XL cogged pulley on it. An X:L cogged belt connects the power to the 2 inch XL cogged pulley mounted on the shaft of the DC motor located below the keyless chuck and inside the pvc pipe.
I set the belt loose to not absorb any motor power and the cogs on the pulleys and belt inhibit the belt and driven pulley from slipping.

So, with this setup, I can not hand wrap at all, because one can not turn the gear motor when it is not powered. But the speed and control and reversibility of the motor is such that I have no reason to hand wrap.

Best of luck and good luck in your search for the perfect selection of O rings to allow you to wrap by hand, or by power as needed.

Good luck



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/27/2018 10:16AM by roger wilson.

A simpler solution is to remove the belt when hand wrapping. I have an Alps power wrapper, which I believe is the same as the Pac Bay.
I tighten one roller support to keep enough tension on the blank to hold it in place. The spring loaded roller stands are useless. Get the stands without springs. Simply push down on one then tighten the locknut. A little trial and error will give the correct tension.

You are turning against the same mechanical advantage that allows your machine's small motor to turn the rod and do so at a manageable speed. There is nothing wrong with the wrapper.

You have two options - either slip the belt off if you need to turn the rod by hand, or use some masking tape to build a larger bushing on the blank in its upper region so that you can regain some mechanical advantage on your end when you need it.

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Take the belt off and take something like a hair tye and loop around one wing nut, then the rod and then to the other wing nut. If not enought tension, tie a knot in the hair tye

If you are trying to turn it to get your wrap started down by the tip I put light pressure on the foot pedal the motor has power but the rod is not turning then I turn it by hand to get the wrap started