Yarn Ball Winder

[tacomagic]

I'm not terribly satisfied with commercially available yarn ball winders for various reasons; plastic ones being noted as not very durable nor winding larger cakes due to their fragility, and wooden ones being rather expensive in comparison. Further, I have noted a great dearth in (free) plans to actually make these; specifically I've seen 2 plans, neither of which are free, and a Lego one that doesn't really have any instructions and is motor driven rather than crank.

 

As such, using various picture sources, I have begun to conceptually design my own inexpensive, DIY ball winder. At this point the project is still a few months away (given that my wife wants me to finish our craft workbenches and DVD shelves before I tackle any of my more frivolous woodworking projects); however, I've gotten most of the design completed and just need to work out a few of the last little "gotchas" before finalizing my hardware list and start making scale plans.

 

Is there much of a call for free plans for a ball winder? As I haven't yet started the project, there is still the opportunity for me to document and photograph the building process of this winder and provide it to those of similar DIY persuasion. If there is an interest, I may see about hosting the plans somewhere, but it's a lot of work to put plans together and host them, so if nobody really wants to make these, then I won't bother.

 

The swift is no big deal, as there are tons of free plans for those. I may work on a cheap DIY umbrella swift at some future date as I didn't see plans for those at all, but it's not really a priority for me.

 

For reference: my yarn ball winder project is aimed at costing less than $30 in materials, using mostly shop scrap, various bits cheaply obtained from the hardware store, and RC car parts readily avilable at the local Hobby shop. Actually, 90% of the cost of the project will be the gears for the offset rotational spool... those little things are surprisingly expensive if you're not using plastic ones.

 

Initially the crank for this unit will be parallel to the rotation of the ball winder, as it cuts the expense for the project considerably. However, a future build may try to incorperate a perpendicular crank for a more natural feel.

 

Let me know,

Taco

[eyrthmother1]

I would love to see the plans, taco. my bf likes to try making me things from my interests just to see if he can (some days, i think thats the only reason he hangs w/ me... cuz i come up w/ diff things for him to make, lol). and so nice of you to offer to make them free. thank you for your kindness.

 

sandy

[DogCatMom]

Great idea, Taco. But what does "RC car parts" stand for? :

[nicolep]

Great idea, Taco. But what does "RC car parts" stand for? :

 

Not the OP, but it's remote control car parts.

 

I'd definitely be interested in design plans for a yarn winder!

[teapot]

This sounds very interesting. I have looked at the ones in michaels and wondered about them but never bought one. Hope you can post a picture when you are done.

[tacomagic]

Thanks for the feedback on this little project. Thus far it seems that there is a fairly positive desire/need for documentation of this project.

 

Thus far I've got all my rough drawings and calculations done (lots of trigonometry) so the project planning stage is pretty much there. Now I'm moving into a "conceptual parts" phase. Basically I know what I want to do, now I have to see what parts can do it for me, and where I'll have to change my design to better fit the parts that I can actually get my hands on. Mostly from the gearing side of things, as ideally I want to use metal gears that are no wider than 5mm and have a shaft diameter as close to 1/4" as possible.

 

I'm also looking to see what kind of low duty bearing I can create using basic 1/4-20 hardware. I think I've got most of that worked out, it's just figuring out if I can add a few cheap pieces to reduce wear. The real challenge is that I want to avoid greasing if at all possible so that I don't risk getting some on the yarn if a miss-wind occurs.

 

The last little piece is deciding if I want to attempt to implement a tapered spool for flatter yarn cakes over a wider range of sizes. I may tweak the design to allow different spools, as that may be the easier solution than tapering. Ideally I'd like to be able to spool anything ranging from a few dozen yards up to a full pound.

 

And nicolep is correct, RC is Remote (or Radio) Controlled cars. Their gear boxes use nice, small gears that are perfect for a project like this. They also tend to be very durable since they can be subjected to quite high amounts of torque. As I'm trying to improve upon the fragile reputation of plastic winders, I'm thinking these gears are the way to go. I may also be able to get bearings of similar size to help with the smoothness of operation; but metal to wood transitions are a bit problematic in that regard.

 

I'll keep everyone updated as the project evolves. As I mentioned, I have a few "honey do" projects that have priority, but I can at least do planning on this during lunch breaks and whatnot.

 

Cheers,

Taco

[RoseRed]

The only concern I have about using motorized parts (and one of the reasons I didn't buy and electric winder) is what happens when the yarn snags? Will it keep pulling until the yarn snaps and breaks?

[tacomagic]

That's the reason I didn't use the Lego one, I don't like the idea of using a motor just for that reason alone. Snags probably end in line breaks.

 

The gears will simply be to translate the central axial rotation to the offset spool. In most of the winders I looked at, there are two points of rotation: a primary rotation axis that spins the 45º spool around a central point, and then the spool itself rotates at a much slower speed so that the yarn lies next to itself on the spool rather than bunching up. The whole thing will be turned using a manual crank that uses a tensioning belt to translate the motion to the primary axis, with no motor at all.

 

The RC parts just provide a cheap(ish) way to acquire the gears necessary for translating the rotational motion of the primary axis to the much slower rotation of the spool (About 50x slower, ideally).

 

I've almost finished a less rough preliminary drawing. I'll try to get it firmed up at lunch and post it here so I can provide a better idea of what I'm trying to do.

[RoseRed]

oh, cool! Can't wait to see what you come up with.

[tacomagic]

Ok, here's a more polished* view of what I'm going to create.

 

It's more evident in the bottom diagram, which is the side view. There is a crank on the right side there which is connected with a belt to the main axis. From there you can see that there is a gear assembly attached to the fixed axel passing up through the main axis. This in turn drives the spool to rotate around its own axis.

 

In this design, the spool is 6" long and has a base diameter of 6" as well. This should be just big enough to take a 1 pound hank and turn it into a cake (I pulled these dimensions from a plastic winder, so hopefully they will work).

 

The digram isn't to scale, as those measurements are on my sloppy concept drawings. Once I have my parts figured out, I'll finalize everything in a to-scale final drawing.

 

*You really don't want to see the rough diagrams.

 

Cheers,

Taco

[HappyOldCro]

Sounds terrific. Can't wait to see your finalized product.

[tacomagic]

I had a very useful design conversation with my father during his visit this past weekend and I have now broken the project into two more focused projects in order to better meet the conflicting aims of the original project:

 

Project 1: Build a cheap, easily assembled yarn ball winder that can be constructed using primarily inexpensive and readily available hand tools. The design will promote function over aesthetics and will aim to produce a working yarn ball winder for under $40. Several design simplifications have been made to my earlier posted diagram in order to achieve the goal of the project. In order to meet the low-cost goal of the project, several options for parts will be explored, many of which can be harvested from broken or used sources. Commercial alternatives to these parts will be listed in order to cater to a larger audience of DIY builders. Plans will be made available for free at a pending location.

 

Project 1, ideally, will only require a coping saw, drill, screw driver, pliers, compass, ruler, sand paper, and a crescent wrench to complete; a tool set that most weekend DIY warriors should already have, and are inexpensive to purchase should one be missing (I.E. a coping saw is about $5 at HomeDepot). The majority of the parts used will be either recycled from common junk, shop scrap, or easily purchased from the local hardware store.

 

A simple swift, constructed out of either shop scrap or PVC pipe will be made to accompany this winder. Plans may or may not be provided for the swift depending on originality of the design I use.

 

Project 2: Build a more complex, and moderately more expensive yarn ball winder. Parts, tools, and methods utilized will not be catered to easy construction, but rather a more polished end product. The project will focus on producing a highly functional and attractive yarn ball winder, incorporating gearing and a 90º offset crank drive. A fresh design will be made for this project once the primary project is completed. The aim of this project will be to produce the yarn ball winder for under $100; however, overruns in price will be acceptable to the final design. Plans for project 2 may or may not be provided free, depending on the effort taken to produce the plans.

 

Project 2 will most likely require less common tools generally only available to the more seasoned woodworker, such as a table saw, band saw, router, biscut jointer, kreg jig, drill press, tap and die set, lathe, chop saw etc. Parts will be higher end, requiring purchase from more specialized dealers as well as finished grade lumber. Seeing as these ball winders generally cost upwards of $200 online, the aim of $100 (or less) in materials seems fairly reasonable.

 

A secondary part of project 2 will be to design and construct a wooden umbrella swift of matching or complimentary wood for the winder. Aesthetics and function will again be the focus.

 

With my father's visit I managed to tackle a huge chunk of my pending "Honey Do" projects, so I now find myself with the free time to start in on Project 1. However, given that the next three weekends will be busy for my wife and I, I'm aiming to begin construction around May 15th, pending any other plans we make. I may do a little prep work here and there as I have a little time.

 

Cheers,

Taco

[DogCatMom]

I know that life is *very* busy! Just thought I'd see whether you've had a chance to advance the plans yet. (I know that it's Mother's Day, so you might not even see this message for a while.... )

 

Just checked w/DH, and we have a coping saw, so we're in possession of all the necessary tools for Project 1, the "cheap, easily assembled" yarn winder. We've pretty much run through our "shop junk" making things for the garden, but FreeCycle is often a source of scrap lumber/wood, so this one would be terrific! (Maybe I could even make it myself, un-mechanical as I am.)

 

We have very *few* of the needed tools for the Project 2 model, but I may know two people who do have them. If only I knew how to use them properly... Long ago, I did wood-working, but that was before The Hand Problems arose. *sigh*

 

DCM

[tacomagic]

Life did indeed get busy on me, the last three weekends have been somewhat full with the holidays, some overtime at work, and a concert. However, I have picked up the majority of the parts necessary for the project. I also dug into my scavenger side and saved a bunch of money through some creative junk harvesting. So far I've spent about $5 in parts on the project and have most everything I need.

 

It won't be pretty by any stretch of the imagination, but functionality is really where I was aiming anyway.

 

Specifically on the junk kludge front: Originally I had planned on using a Lazy Susan bearing for the hand crank, as it's cheap and works. But it's also noisy. Instead I had a family member whose hard drive crashed on them. I installed a new one and kept their cast off. After thinking about the hard drive and my project I decided to crack the bad boy open. I discovered that I was able to remove the platter motor from the junked drive. It spins so very nice, and quiet as whisper So I'll be incorporating that as an optional money saver into the project as opposed to the more noisy Lazy Susan bearing.

 

Further, I had originally planned on using a drive belt to couple the hand crank to the primary spinning axis. However, even used drive belts run $5-10. After some thinking I ran over to my local bike shop and begged a few junked tire inner tubes off them (they could have loaded me down with 20 of the things, but I kept it to 2 of them). I'm thinking with some creative gluing with vulcanizing epoxy or something I can create a serviceable low-tension coupling belt. Alternately I've considered donning a pair of work gloves and braiding a tension belt from strips of tire. Or lubing the heck out of an N size crochet hook and crocheting a quick belt from inner tube strips. Options, options.

 

Neither of these kludges are particularly attractive solutions, but it'll easily save $15 on the project; which is half my budget for the easy assembled one! So, if you're chomping at the bit for the plans and like a little scavenge work, you may want to start looking for something to service as a coupling belt and a lazy Susan. If you've already got used bike inner tubes and a bad hard-drive, then you're probably ahead of the game.

 

I'm still hoping I will be able to keep my May 15th date for the start of construction. Things still look good to make it. I'll of course be taking pictures and making notes as I go. I'll also be finalizing my plans during lunches this week and posting those along with the instructions. All of it will be hosted on my newly created blog, which I'll link to once I've put it all together. I'll also try putting together a PDF version as well and hosting that; provided it fits on my free blog.

 

Cheers,

Taco

 

Addendum: For those interested, I'll be adding a tutorial on how to scavenge parts out of a bad hard-drive to my blog in the coming week (probably Thursday). I'll toss a link to the tutorial on here when it gets posted.

 

For your scavenging information, you want to aim for acquiring either Western Digital or Samsung drives as these companies generally have an easily removable platter motor. Segate should be avoided as they mold their motors into the casing and are thus un-removable. I'm not sure about other brands as I've not had the opportunity to dissect any drives by companies outside of the three listed. Western Digital is thus far my favorite to salvage. Since my initial drive, I've managed to get my hands on 4 other WD drives, and they all had removable motors that spun wonderfully. I've got a little collection growing. My favorite thing about them is that they have 3 nicely sized holes on the base, making them a snap to mount to something.

[DogCatMom]

I am so jazzed about this project! Not only for the goal of a yarn-ball winder, but for the fun of putting together otherwise cast-off components and getting them to yield a functioning, useful object. Sounds like you do engineering work, tacomagic. I've worked with engineers for much of my adult life, and went to Georgia Tech for a few years as well, so I know many of the signs--and they're fun to see!!!

 

Will put the word out about dead WD hard drives and ask around about bike inner tubes, etc. Maybe Tuffies, if anyone still has those around?

 

DCM

[tacomagic]

You're spot on. I am indeed an Engineer.

[tacomagic]

Welp, there may be a possible delay in the work here. A friend we've been neglecting has invited us over for the weekend and it's looking probable that we'll be taking the opportunity to visit him.

 

I'd love to stay home and do the project, but my friend is a bit more important to me.

 

I still plan on finishing the drawings, though. However, a new idea struck today for doing the 45º angle that will save having to do some fancy cutting, so I'll need to make yet another trip to the hardware store to check if the parts I want actually exist. Oh darn.

[DogCatMom]

Friends are...friends! More important than projects, even though it's sometimes hard for us to tear ourselves away from our projects. (Boy, don't *I* know it!)

 

Thx for the update, and enjoy your visit with Friend.

 

DCM

[tacomagic]

I've posted the hard-drive disassembly and salvaging tutorial on my blog: HERE.

 

That should give my fellow kludgers something to do while I'm not working on the project this weekend.

[FrLopLady]

The only concern I have about using motorized parts (and one of the reasons I didn't buy and electric winder) is what happens when the yarn snags? Will it keep pulling until the yarn snaps and breaks?

 

I have the boye winder and it has some slippage built in so if it snags the gears slip..ok maybe they are just stripping but it does not break the yarn. I love my winder, but do wonder how long it will last. I use it quite a bit though and so far so good.

[Amy]

Taco, if you're still looking for a place to host your completed instructions, I just wanted to let you know you have the capability to upload a pdf file to one of your posts here.

 

Of course, if you'd rather host the instructions on your own blog or site, that's fine, too. Just make sure you share the link here, because it seems lots of us are very interested in what you come up with!

[tacomagic]

I finally got the opportunity to do a little work on the project today. Specifically I got the base cut and the hard drive motor set into said base. Hopefully over the next week I'll have some time to make the crank. Unfortunately I didn't get nearly as much done as I'd have liked; but between the toddler and a list of chores big enough to fend off a hungry Jaguar, I'm lucky to have gotten this much done. Also, I need to remember for the future to give myself more time for each stage. It takes more than twice as long to do something if you have to stop every few seconds and set up a picture of what you're doing.

 

Also, for those wondering; I'm using the motor as a silent Lazy Susan bearing. An actual Lazy Susan bearing can be used instead (and I'll include that option in the instructions); however the motor has 4 important advantages: It's silent, it's smooth running, it's high duty, and it was free. Thus far, not counting tools (and I never count tools), the project has cost 0 dollars (that number goes up to about $5 when I finish the crank as there were things I've already purchased for that part). The motor was free, the screws to attach it to the base were out of my giant collection of leftover screws, and the wood was shop scrap left over from another project. Technically the wood and screws did cost me money, but I consider that a sunk cost of the completed project (book shelf) that they were originally purchased for. I'm certainly doing well on my budget of $30 in parts thus far.

 

I've attached a picture of what I finished today as a teaser. I've taken a lot of photos of the process so I should have plenty for the instructions.

 

-Taco

 

P.S. For scale the base is 14" wide by 26" long.

[DogCatMom]

So far, so beautiful, Taco! (encouragingly....)

 

DCM

[tacomagic]

Also, as an FYI, for those having trouble getting hard drive motors, I've got a modest collection of them now; with a few more trickling in as I snag bad drives from various places.

 

After my plans are complete, I'd be willing to trade these motors for the odd ball of yarn should anyone need help getting their hands on these little beauties.

 

As I said though, I'll wait until after I've got the plans entirely put together before entertaining requests for them. Since I don't know how long this is all gonna take I don't want to get ahead of myself here.

[oliveoil]

Can't wait to see your finished product!! I am in need of a yarn ball winder!! :yarn I've been making the ever POPULAR "Stash Buster Totes" and on most of the totes I've been using both ends of one yarn. And it gets kind of perturbing(for me) that I have to stop and unwind, stop and unwind, stop and unwind. :eek :lol I googled yarn ball winder patterns and I went to a youtube site. I found a pattern for $30.00. The patterns are for a yarn ball winder, yarn swift and a table top spindle. All I want is the yarn ball winder!!!! Anyway, if you want to check this out, here is her website: http://lisaboyer.com. Click "woodworking plans", then scroll down until you see "yarn lovers package plans".