A surface winder is provided for developing rolls of web material wound on a core including a magazine for dispensing cores sequentially and a nip for receiving cores sequentially, the core transport means between said source and nip arranged to follow a generally hypocycloidal path to provide cusps for adhesive application to the core and for introducing cores into the nip, a surface winder including a pair of winding belts traveling at different speeds and in different directions, and web severence means including a pair of web pinching points one of which is on the moving web and the other on a stationary part of the web.