Nickbee

For those of you who don’t know what a yarn swift is it’s used to either unwind yarn from hanks into balls or to wind yarn into hanks from bobbins (after spinning yarn from fiber). Now apparently hanks come in all different sizes, so the swift needs adjustability (hence all the fricken holes).

Now why do I know so much about yarn and now knitting? It was my friend Kara’s fault. She knew I was kinda handy with wood and needed one of these things. I happened to need a scarf to replace the one I lost last year. So she gets a yarn swift, and I get a 6 foot hand knitted scarf made from Peruvian highland wool. And I get to work a project that involves wood and mechanical toys.

So after seeing some poor models on eBay I decided that a good basis of the swift would be a lazy Susan. After an hour at lowes contemplating materials and designs I decided on Poplar for wood and a 5” bearing (which has a weight capacity of 350 lbs, that’s lots of yarn!). The hardest thing to work out in my head, while shopping for everything, was how to mount the bearing between two circles. Once that was figured out everything else was cake. The finish is 3 coats of gloss Minwax brush-on poly finished with a final coat of Minwax spray-on satin poly. After it cured for 3-4 days I buffed it out with 0000 steel wool and Johnson’s wax. The result is a smooth finish that should play well with delicate yarns. The bottom of the swift has a layer of shelf liner cork for protection and anti-skidness.

Here are some pics of the final product:

Nickbee

And here are some photos of the production. BTW I found out much later about circle guides for routers. Needless to say the Bosch 1617 I just picked up came with one! That will save time in the future!!!!

Nickbee

Now that this project is done it’s full steam ahead to get my router table set up. A bunch of goodies are on order. But that’s another post :D

Daveb

Nice!

This friend, Kara. You must have racked up a few points?

Daren

I was one who did not know what a yarn swift is, never even heard the term. Hey I learned something today, thanks.

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Nickbee

I think 99.9% of men don't know what it is

Hubert

Hey! I resemble that remark.

Anyway those Magnetic?? clamps looked interesting. and your metal assembly table. Tell us more.

Nickbee

The magnetic building board was originally set up for building RC airplanes (here things have to be very precise.). The guts is a table top out of ¾” MDF for a metro wire shelf I had lying around. On top of that went two layers of anti-slip padding, then a 3/8” slab of plate glass. A .120” thick piece of sheet metal was glued to the glass using GE silicon II and about 300 lbs of weight (those extra boxes of granite tile in the basement came in handy). I finished the building side with a vibrating sander. 80, 120 then finally 220 grit paper. The result is an absolutely flat 6’ x 2’ building surface.

I plan to put it to some good use for wood working also!

Corndog

That B&D jigsaw is older than ME but unlike me it's still working!!!

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Geoff...

TexasTimbers

I must say you gave a complete pictorial tutorial! Nice job. Thanks for the education. Next time I need to build a yarn swift I know right where to go.

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Corndog

Hey TT!!!! Are you challenging me for " WWT Smart A$$" rights????

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Geoff...

Nickbee

Ya that jig saw SCREAMS retro!

Nickbee

My friend got her yawn swift and started using it. Here are some pics:







And here's a link to a video of it in action (used along with a ball winder)...

http://www.nickbee.com/vids/swift10.wmv

Needless to say it's great to see something I made in use like this!

rob.hough

Very cool. My girlfriend likes to knit but I don't think anything about it. Wonder if this would be a tool she could use at some point?


Hehe, I recognize the fish food. I've got a 125g african cichlid tank, and a 75g reef.

jpw23

pretty cool man...I had no idea what a yarn swift was until today

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