Yarn Ball Winder

[tacomagic]

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".

 

I actually saw that during my research phase. It's basically the same as the Stauch winder from a mechanics standpoint; and it uses some of the same concepts of building that project 1 will (at least so far as I can see from her pictures anyway). I actually tried her store just to see if I could order just the winder plans for less money, but the store no longer appears to work (the link was broken the handfull of times I tried); so it's kind of a moot point at the end of the day.

 

Plus, $30 for plans is fairly outrageous even if it does come with 3 different plans. I'd say $10 would have been closer to reality. Maybe that's why the store no longer works.

 

Anyway, I'm going to do a fair amount of hosting redundancy once I have the PDF compiled so hopefully mine won't disappear from the net like hers has.

 

Cheers,

Taco

 

EDIT: And on a recheck, her store actually appears to be functioning again; cheeky website! Oh well, I still think $30 is way steep for the plans. If I sell the Project 2 plans they'll most likely run for $5; though I'm actually hoping to get it published in a woodworking magazine; in which case it'll be face value of the Mag.

[oliveoil]

I actually saw that during my research phase. It's basically the same as the Stauch winder from a mechanics standpoint; and it uses some of the same concepts of building that project 1 will (at least so far as I can see from her pictures anyway). I actually tried her store just to see if I could order just the winder plans for less money, but the store no longer appears to work (the link was broken the handfull of times I tried); so it's kind of a moot point at the end of the day.

 

Plus, $30 for plans is fairly outrageous even if it does come with 3 different plans. I'd say $10 would have been closer to reality. Maybe that's why the store no longer works.

 

Anyway, I'm going to do a fair amount of hosting redundancy once I have the PDF compiled so hopefully mine won't disappear from the net like hers has.

 

Cheers,

Taco

 

EDIT: And on a recheck, her store actually appears to be functioning again; cheeky website! Oh well, I still think $30 is way steep for the plans. If I sell the Project 2 plans they'll most likely run for $5; though I'm actually hoping to get it published in a woodworking magazine; in which case it'll be face value of the Mag.

 

I thought $30 was a bit pricey also, especially when all I want is the yarn ball winder!! Will be waiting for your pattern!! I do hope you get it published in a woodworking magazine. I love looking at those magazines. My dh and I "used" to make a lot of wood items. Our best project so far were our two coffee tables and end tables for our living and family rooms. I learned how to use the "band saw"!! Quite fun once I got the hang of it!! :lol And not scared of the blade!! :eek

[tacomagic]

I started writing up the first portion of the plans (the base) this evening. Interestingly it takes about 5x as long to write up the plans as it does to actually do the work. It took me about 1 hour to build the base and I've been working on the plans covering that portion of the project for 3 hours now... and I'm about 2/3 of the way done with the section.

 

I'm hoping to have part 1 of the plans finished and on my blog early next week with hopes to have started part 2 in the interim.

 

Cheers,

Taco

[DogCatMom]

So...DH sent the link to your "take it apart this way, guys" page to his carpool buddy. Carpool Buddy is the IT guy at DH's work. Carpool Buddy (CB) was **absolutely ecstatic** to get the instrux! He has a BOX of dead drives taking up space in his tiny work area. He is required, by regulation, to retain the platters containing the data, but the rest of each drive he can dispose of, saving mucho space. Maybe I can be your West Coast Drive Distributor....or just send 'em to you when he's done?

 

So CB took one apart the other day. It's here, on my computer table (fancy word for "card table filled with all kinds of stuff, including a computer"), in all its shining glory, with little mounting screws, just waiting for its time in the sun--again. Then his screwdriver BROKE! I don't know, and DH doesn't know, whether it was a faulty specimen or a faulty brand. Bleah. CB will purchase another/a better one and get to town, though; according to DH, CB was positively giddy over the idea of getting a box's worth of space back!

 

Re. the ClockWorker & Lisa Boyer: Lisa Boyer is well known in one of my other lives--quilting. She has written two hysterically funny books about quilting and quilters. (I have a copy of each, well marked.) ClockWorker added his "plans pages" to Lisa's on-line store. Not sure why the on-line store didn't work for you earlier, but yes the "Yarn Package" plans are one package. Why on earth would I need the spindle? On certain days, I could be persuaded to "need" a swift, but never a spindle. So I'm eagerly awaiting your plan for the yarn winder, esp. now that I have a drive...motor?!

 

DCM

[tacomagic]

Good to hear about the drives! I don't need any myself as I'm now sitting on about 8 of them and I doubt I'll use any more than 2 or 3 in the near to not-so-near future. However, if it comes to distribution I can work on getting them passed out to others should they need it; or I can direct them to you. Either, or.

 

Just in time for the weekend I got rather sick with the lovely Rhinovirus that's been going around my area. Sadly this has put me back a few days on... well everything.

 

Tomorrow I have the day off but with my garden needing a lot of attention it didn't get over the past two days, it's doubtful the project is going to see any attention until next weekend. Life is just grand at throwing all these little complications at you isn't it?

 

I'm still about a page away from finishing up the plans for the base; hopefully I"ll get some time after dark tomorrow to finish those up for posting on my blog. I want to go back and take better pictures of one of the steps, but I may wait until the second draft of the plans so that I can get something up for people to see that actual progress has been made.

 

Cheers,

Taco

[wheat]

It looks like you are making great progress.

 

Did you have a list of components yet for those of us who might want to "be on the look out" for important bits and pieces.

 

Wheat

[tacomagic]

It looks like you are making great progress.

 

Did you have a list of components yet for those of us who might want to "be on the look out" for important bits and pieces.

 

Wheat

 

I don't have anything solid, but here's what I have so far that will most likely make it into the project:

 

• Wood (Not sure how much yet. Not a lot more than say 1x 14"x26" piece and 5x 12" square pieces give or take).
  
• A hard-drive motor with screws and holding cap (or a Lazy Susan bearing)
  
• 1 or 2 aluminum platters for the hard-drive motor (These aren't needed per se, but make life much, much easier) If you don't have a platter, then a 4" or 5" square piece of 1/8 or 1/4 inch plywood or hardboard will be needed.
  
• Various wood screws of many lengths and threads (I've got a box full of random screws; but I'll try to be more specific in the instructions)
  
• A bicycle inner-tube (For the belt)
  
• Vulcanizing rubber glue/cement (For the belt. There's usually some in bike puncture repair kits, or you can get a tube for about $3 at a bike shop)
  
• An 8" long 1/2" bolt with 2 nuts and 3 washers (Handle of the crank; mine is threaded only at one end)
  
• 4x 1/4" or slightly bigger bore ball bearings. A set of 608Z/ZZ/2PS, ABEC-7, or 627ZZ/2PS would work really well for this. Sets of 8 of these bearings range from 8.50 - 12.00 after shipping from Amazon or Ebay. Personally I've ordered a set of 608Z from Amazon that come up 8.49 after shipping for a set of 8 bearings. They're double shielded so will work wonderfully for the project.*
  
• Some fairly long bolts to fit through the bearings. The bolts should be no less than 5 or 6 inches and fully threaded. Preferably, just buy a length of all-thread and cut it to size with a hacksaw. You'll also need a handfull of nuts, washers, and lock washers for the bolts/allthread. 1/4x20 threads will work pretty well with 8mm sized bearings (such as the 608Z). You'll have ~1.65mm of total play around the bearing (~.8mm gap all around), but that won't be a big deal in this case since it's going to be fairly low load.
  
• 1/2" Schedule N PVC pipe. 2 feet will probably be enough (it's for the crank handle and the yarn spindle).
  
• 4x 90º metal angle brackets. These will be bent to 135º for creating the 45º offset spindle
  
• 2 C-clamps (You can pick up C clamps super cheap just about anywhere. At Harbor Freight I found a pair of 3" C clamps for $1.50 each on sale)
  

That's all I have so far. A good portion of that list is still conceptual as I've neither bought the parts nor used them; though I've got a lot of them already just by virtue of being left over from other projects.

 

*For reference a 608z is 8x22x8mm. 8mm is just a little over 1/4 inch (really, really close to 5/16 inch, just a tad bigger) and 22mm is just 3mm shy of 1 inch (just a hair under 7/8 inch).

 

 

ADDENDUM: With the purchase of the vulcanizing rubber cement, C-clamps, the bearings, the PVC, and the bolts with hardware my total project spending is still only $21 to date. I've got pretty much everything I think I'll be needing and am still under budget by $9. Looking good to make my budget of $30 even if I decide to buy some spray paint.

[DogCatMom]

DH and his Makita are looking forward to this, but not nearly as much as I am!

 

We're now on a treasure hunt for "stuff." When you say "Wood (Not sure how much yet. Not a lot more than say 1x 14"x26" piece and 5x 12" square pieces give or take)." -- is that one piece of 14"x26" plywood and five 12" square pieces of plywood? If so, do you recommend half-inch or three-quarters plywood? Grade...?

 

I think we used every last bit of plywood for the scrap-made potting table in the garden, but Freecycle will get me "new" plywood, as long as I know what to ask for.

 

Such a treasure hunt can take a few weeks, so no pressure! (But now that Wheat is here....who knows? A Big Name in my little world, at least!)

 

DCM

[tacomagic]

I'll be using 1x 14"x26" by 3/4" piece, 4x 12" square 1/2" pieces, and 1x 12" square 3/4" piece. All of shop grade or project grade plywood (since I have a lot of scrap laying around of various grades, some even cabinet grade). However, just about any wood could be used that is 1/2" or thicker. Plywood is generally easier to work with because there is no grain and it's pretty easy to find free shop or construction grade scrap since it's used in construction a LOT. However, when picking from free stuff, always get the best grade available since it requires less sanding and will have fewer voids.

 

It probably won't be a huge deal what grade is used in any case because I do intend to paint mine and I have plenty of void-fill left over from my bookshelves. I'll be including the painting of the project as an optional step, for those who want a bit more aesthetics to the final product.

 

The thicknesses aren't a big deal in this case. The base is best at 3/4 inch because it's sturdier, but 1/2 inch would probably serve well enough. The spindle and hand crank will be made mostly by laminating pieces together, so thickness of the stock only really determines how many pieces you'll need to cut and glue. I'm using 1/2" stock for the crank because it shaves about 3/4" off the finished product and it'll be a bit lighter; also using the 1/2" thickness will allow me to create the 1" gap that will best fit the bike tube for tensioning.

 

Also, for those who want a peek, the first part of the winder plans are up on my blog:

http://tacomagic.wordpress.com/2011/05/31/yarn-ball-winder-part-1/

 

Many of the tools I use in this portion of the directions will be used throughout the project; only a few additions will need to be made further on in the project beyond what is listed. The only really big specialty tool I would recommend thinking about buying would be a forstner bit set. Even outside of this project those bits are extremely useful to have around; if a bit pricey. Alternately, a cheapo hole-cutting saw set ($7-$8) is a good investment that will save time on a number of projects.

 

And, if you don't own a Jig saw, see about borrowing one if you can. Most of the cutting I do CAN by done with a coping saw; but a jig saw takes a quarter of the time with far less effort. You can also pick up a jig saw relatively cheap. I think craftsman has a corded version for $25 that would work reasonably well on plywood. But as I said, you can make do with a coping saw it'll just take a bit longer and possibly require an extra beer or two. But for the kludger a good jig saw is one of those tools I would call essential. With a drill and a jig saw you can work magic.

 

Now that I'm feeling better and the coming weekend is (as yet) not booked for anything I should hopefully have some time to do the hand crank. I've got a lot of gardening that needs to happen this week though since it didn't happen this past weekend, so it's all going to come down to how much of it I can get done on the weeknights between now and then.

 

Cheers,

Taco

[mclendon1]

I just have to share this tidbit: One of my good friends is a Indie Yarnie; her dad made her the mack-daddy yarn winder using a ceiling fan motor! Of course, she winds more yarn in a month, than I will in a lifetime.

[tacomagic]

Something else to keep a look out for:

 

3x or 4x 1/4 inch bore (or slightly larger) ball bearings. outer diameter should be fairly large, 1/2" or larger preferably. Shielded bearings would also be good, but not necessary.

 

It looks like the easiest source for these would be from a set of used Rollerblades, roller skates, or a skate board (I'm open to other suggestions though). I'm going to hit the rummage sales around my area and fish Craigslist to see if I can snag a pair of Rollerblades for under $10.

 

To buy a set of these bearings by themselves would run about $20 from the local skate shop, so I'm hoping to find a cheaper solution.

 

EDIT: Upon further searching it looks as though I can snag a set of 8 cheapo skateboard bearings from Amazon for just under $10 after shipping. My goal for a used pair of rollerblades/Skates/skateboard is now $8 or under.

 

Additional EDIT: Looks like the best price I can find online for the bearings is $8.50; which will save me the effort of trying to press a set out of a pair of rollerblades or a skateboard. I'm going to redo the parts list above to reflect a few changes due to the pretty high availability of these bearings.

[tacomagic]

Thanks to a productive day today, I now have the crank almost entirely finished. Right now it's glued and clamped, and in 24 hours it will be set up and ready for one last drilling and hardware assembly. Tomorrow or Tuesday I'll add the hardware and it should be done.

 

After that is complete I'll be moving on to the tensioning belt; which shouldn't take more than an hour or two to do. Hopefully I'll have the opportunity to start doing the write up for the crank this week; but as I noticed last time, the write up takes much more time than the actual work on the project does.

 

Once I've got the crank put together I'll upload a picture of it here. Schedule permitting, I'm thinking Tuesday or Wednesday.

[tacomagic]

Holy sweet camera man I took a LOT of photos for the crank construction.

 

All told I have 124 pictures of the assembly of the crank... and that is AFTER I culled out all the bad shots and duplicates.

 

What does everyone think: more pictures are better, or should I crop it down to a more manageable selection of the important pictures?

[DogCatMom]

Not to make your life more difficult, but more pix would be more helpful. DH will most likely be doing the actual work, and he's never seen a yarn winder in action (despite my asking him to come to the LYS and take a look).

 

DCM

[tacomagic]

Not to make your life more difficult, but more pix would be more helpful. DH will most likely be doing the actual work, and he's never seen a yarn winder in action (despite my asking him to come to the LYS and take a look).

 

DCM

 

A friend suggested that I take the most important pictures, shrink them down and put them in with the instructional text and then add all the pictures to a second document as figures which I can reference from the text. I was already doing something similar to that, but I think hybridizing it like he suggested will give me the best of both worlds. So fear not, all the pictures will be available... granted it will take me longer to do it this way, but I think the end result will be much better.

 

In other related news, I've also started 3d modeling the wooden components of the winder. So the ugly scans of my graph paper drawings will soon be replaced with sharp and snazzy 3d-rendered, measured, and diagramed parts.

 

I had to buy a few more things for the winder... and dived a dumpster for another part; luckily now that I'm looking at the recipts for everything I've bought, I over-estimated how much I spent on some of the bolts, so I'm actually running at about $20 spent. Even if I add in what some of the bolts I had on-hand would have cost to buy new, I doubt I'd have spent more than $22-24 all told thus far (10 1/4x20 nuts, 8 lock washers, 4 regular washers, and an acorn nut). Plenty of money left over for a can of spray paint if I don't have to buy anything else.

 

The next portion of the project is going to be assembling the spindle on the fixed shaft. Since I sprung the $8.54 on the skateboard bearings, I think this portion is going to be much easier than it was shaping up to be without them. Once I finish updating the plans, I'm thinking it should only take about 4-6 hours to do the spindle (minus the 24 hour gluing time, of course).

 

Cheers,

Taco

[rrr777mmm]

 

i mentioned the hand mixer [=which has too much power to work] and lego winders to someone.

 

he thought a fishing rod / line reel would work well

[are available in various sizes for small fish - super huge ocean game].

i don't know enough to make it work.

 

Best wishes with your endeavors.

 

peace

 

.

[Nilliem]

TacoMagic...

 

THANK YOU!! You just made my day! I just found this thread. I've been contemplating getting my husband to make me a ball winder, after looking at the prices. I didn't even get as far as looking for plans, and here you are!

 

After telling him about this and mentioning it would make a lovely Christmas gift , I asked if he would be interested in making it for me. My oldest DD piped in that she'd make it, heh. I think it would be a good joint venture for them. So...yay!

 

I just wanted to note, DD in question just informed us last week that she wants to be an engineer, in the automotive industry. I think this would be a good place for her second lesson in making things...her first was to go with DH and learn to weld, heh.

 

Eagerly awaiting the finish...

[DogCatMom]

Let me know when you get to the "scavenged computer hard-drive motor" part.

 

DCM

[ddc]

TacoMagic - I am in awe of your creativity and expertise and the skill of all the DIYers around. I could no more make one of those than I could fly. I did it the other boring way - worked at what I could actually do to make money and splurged and bought one.

 

I hope all of you who make them will post pics of the finished projects. I guarantee, they will impress the socks off of me!