Making a Yarn Swift

Hello,

If you have no idea what I am even trying to make that's probably because neither did I when the other half asked me to make one. She shown me pictures of them and decided she wants one like the link below. I can do the majority but I have never had to make anything move before or clamp to a desk before. I have tried googling for all sorts of things but I am not being very successful in my searches for how to clamp it or how to make it move. It goes around in a windmill motion so I was thinking maybe some ball bearings but as I have never worked with them before I wouldn't know where to begin but I presume its fairly simple? (well isnt everything once you know anyway!)

As for the clamping action to the table I was thinking something like an https://www.toolstation.com/shop/Co...alwork/sd2797/Heavy+Duty+Angle+Bracket/p95787 (L Bracket) and then something like https://www.amazon.co.uk/Sourcingma...031_1_15?s=diy&ie=UTF8&qid=1544476746&sr=1-15 this for the tightening mechanism and maybehttps://www.amazon.co.uk/Veda-TYPE-...XBM5SH5A4E6&psc=1&refRID=ZAADA86P1XBM5SH5A4E6 these to screw them into? So then I thought maybe screw them into a block of wood? Or maybe a bit of rubber or something to prevent marks but as I have never made a clamping type device I dont really know what I am searching for to find the right sort of thing.

https://www.georgeweil.com/tools/yarn-management/louet-stand-alone-skein-winder - Yarn Swift

Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks

James

I have to admit that I had to ask the missus - and she sort of knew (and it kind of explained why my mum used me as a portable yarn swift when I was a kid....).

The arms are straightforward enough - just a couple of pieces of (preferably) a light coloured fine-grained hardwood such as beech or rubberwood joined with a cross-halving joint (something you can rout with the help of a jig, a straight cutter and a guide bush) then drilled dead through the centre and 4 holes for the "pegs" and one for the handle. The upright will similarly be a piece of hardwood. You may want to make friends with a local joinery shop and see if they would be willing to saw and plane you up some materials (for a small cash donation to their tea fund, of course!)

The four pegs on the arms could be just plain hardwood dowelling (try Appleby Turnings).Glued in and with the ends sanded round

I think for the knob you may need something like a spinner knob - try an industrial knob and handle supplier as they are used on all sorts of machinery. In Burnley there's an excellent place called Cotel Mouldings who make that sort of thing. Otherwise high quality ball bearing spinner knobs can be had from fishing tackle shops (replacements for ones used on reels), but you'd need to figure out how to get a shaft to carry them (possibly ground silver steel rod epoxied into a hole in the arm?)

That leaves the hub and spindle, so possibly butcher a roller skate wheel/axle and extract the spindle and bearings so that they can be epoxied into the holes?

Finally the clamp looks awfully like a straightened-out fretwork clamp (in a vice), like the one below I found on the Pages of Tools website:

They were once pretty common and cost pennies (well, £1 to £2 for the cramp alone), but these days they have all but disappeared. But that would make-up a proper clamp if you want the item to be demountable

Just throwing some ideas on where you might want to start your searches

Just buy her one, tell her you made it .
https://www.ebay.co.uk/p/3a38-Metal...7%26rvr_ts%3D9fc011a91670a9cc50c47f3dfff5ab23

here is someone making one on YouTube.

So it can be attacked to a table I would bolt this onto the side of a G Clamp.

Also this one, with a simpler central hub. I think I would use a bolt with an outer metal sleeve (metal tube).

SFK

foxhole said:

Just buy her one, tell her you made it

Click to expand...

And there was me thinking this is a DIY forum.......

JobAndKnock said:

And there was me thinking this is a DIY forum.......

Click to expand...

Well he would be buying it himself! I guess buying is a form of doing

Bloody good job I don't tackle my joinery installation that way, then!

Thank you for the ideas.

I have checked out both videos posted but they are not standing swifts so couldn't be used as it's a space issue. Hence the standing and clamping to a desk.

As for the ball bearings I haven't ever used them before so if I were to use something like say a coach bolt through the centre of the bearing and use a washer and wing nut on the other side to hold it in place say? Would that work?

Thanks

James