I was wondering if someone could help me design a fixture that breaks down 1kg spools into smaller coils with a 6 inch inner diameter. I made a tool to do it by hand but something automated with a stepper motor would be so nice.
Hi nbmoretto
I believe a stepper, a cheap steperdriver (i.e. stepstick) and a pulse generator (maybe cheap µC) can do it.
Not knowing your manual version you might need a wheels or so to connect the stepper.
If you want a precise length respooled I would use a “slipping belt” for the target spool, winding up faster than the actual “tracking” from the source spool. Something similar used in the old cassettes recorders.
All the Best
Frank
I finished my first prototype: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WGOxOEAFI0Q
I need to add drag to the spool so there is more tension in the line. I am also raising the height of the first idler wheel.
After more testing I found it works perfectly fine without the idler wheels!
Hi nbmoratto
that looks very good.
Now the next step is measuring the length 
All the Best
Frank
You could probably adapt a measuring wheel to do that. This is only $10 and uses a flywheel to measure up to 1000 feet.
http://www.northerntool.com/shop/tools/product_200654843_200654843
Well I know the diameter of my coiler so x amount of rotations equalys y amount of length