Got some sheep (merinos) that I shear every year or so. They're old girls and in declining health so don't cut a huge amount, but I'm ending up with bags of wool. I could send it off to my dad and he could stuff it in with his wool clip (did one year and got about $500 for the wool from 5 sheep). Anyway, need to find something to do with it and I like to learn how to do things that might come in handy during the inevitable zombie apocalypse that is coming. We have a second hand spinning wheel, but nee a way to get from raw wool into something that'll be nice to spin. So, I need to card the wool (after it's been washed... several times). You can buy these hand cranked carders from a few places, they are generally around $700-$800 (AUD), which was a little steep for something we might use once or twice a year (unless zombie apocalypse). I also had pretty much everything needed to build it lying around (other than the carding cloth which was by far the most expensive part of it), and the tools to do so, so I designed my own one and set about building it. It turned out reasonably similar to the design, but not identical. https://pic8.co/d/5d221b93-fe89-4d1c-8692-76e0797f0438.png The plans were somewhat more suggestive than explicit, but gave me a pretty good idea of the general size, layout and positioning of parts. First job was to make the cylinders, the size of everything else would be determined based on this. The smaller drum is ~50mm, the larger one ~150mm. The active pulleys are the same size, but on opposite wheels. For the smaller drum, I found a reasonably straight piece of firewood (Bluegum). It had some pretty major grub action going on there, and actually still had some live grubs in it. Not exactly sure what type of grub they are, but they will kill a fully grown tree if thre's enough of them (they've killed several of mine, but no big deal it just means I have pre-seasoned firewood when I cut them down). A rough center was drilled in one end, the other end cleaned up to roughly round and it was held in the 3-jaw on my metal lathe and turned down to size. Then a 16mm hole was drilled in through the middle. In hindsight, I would probably get a small diameter boring bar and relieve the inside of the bore as it wasn't exactly straight. This meant that I had to hammer in the shaft, and that the shaft ended up with a small amount of bow in it, so the end that has the large pulley runs out a bit (which is amplified by the size of the pulley). https://pic8.co/d/e15ba03d-a074-4454-a707-ba31107b16a4.jpg https://pic8.co/d/c656daf3-b01e-4722-91c9-5205f133c213.jpg https://pic8.co/d/0f9bc0d1-893f-4923-9ae8-16116aa72d1c.jpg The shafts used were just some mild steel rod I had lying around, 16mm diameter I think. It isn't very nice to machine, so the surface finish is a bit shitty, but it'll be fine for this application. The shafts were left at 16mm for the majority, with the ends turned down to 12mm to fit the bearings. I didn't bother to take any pictures of this apparently. The main drum was made by gluing up a segmented ring made up of 30 segments cut with a 6degree angle on each side, plus two spacers with parallel sides to correct the overall diameter. The material I'm laying the segments out on is the backing paper off some contact, wood glue seems to not stick to that at all. Good quality baking paper also works, but the cheap stuff usually gets stuck after one or two uses. https://pic8.co/d/2bb3c8e5-d33c-4b83-88d1-c19f0838eaa3.jpg https://pic8.co/d/4e8e6e92-696d-46b6-9341-fb812825a9ec.jpg The segmented ring was roughly turned on the lathe by gluing some wooden mandrels in each end and running it all on a shaft. This allowed the circular tenons on each end to be cut to the right size and concentric, so that it would glue up fairly straight. The ends were thick pieces of hardwood that were glued into squares up to make up the full diameter needed. First they were trimmed, then put in the 4-Jaw on the lathe and turned to a little oversize. A groove, about 1/4" wide was cut in the face to join the segmented ring with. The hole for the shaft was also drilled at this time, so that I could use the shaft as a mandrel to turn the outside of the drum. This whole assembly was glued up, then turned down to final diameter. The finish on the end grain was a bit rough (due to the low speed and sub-optimum tool geometry when using a metal lathe with whatever HSS tool you find lying around) but it would do the job, and would be mostly covered by the carding cloth. https://pic8.co/d/9f39874f-4823-4e67-8219-efe35e67bc7a.jpg https://pic8.co/d/20d7d3ed-50a0-48d6-bdec-d81b3c6ebd52.jpg https://pic8.co/d/82100a8b-3a71-4f80-a54c-a3453d457c75.jpg https://pic8.co/d/630fceae-5635-476a-bb1b-19fb4e0c3c23.jpg Due to the number of grub holes in the smaller drum, I ended up filling them with clear epoxy. This took more epoxy and time than expected, mainly because the holes basically riddle the entire piece, going from end to end and branching out in several places. Eventually I got the drum smooth and round. https://pic8.co/d/013357e4-c41c-42b1-aaf8-957ee150fe86.jpg It appears that I didn't take any photos of the frame construction. But that was fairly straight forward. It was made from the shelving of an old, very heavy, Art Deco wardrobe that the previous owners of my house left behind (because it was too big and heavy to move I suppose) The wood is all Australian hardwood. It has some difficult grain in it, but it is flat and consistent thickness. Next up was the fabrication of the pulley flanges. The pulleys will be made from wood, but securely and accurately fixing them to the shafts would require some intermediate device. These flanges were fabricated from some 19mm shaft and 50x5mm flat bar, both of which I had lying around. The 19mm bar was cut to length and faced off with a generous bevel on the end to be welded. I also drilled them out to 12mm to fit the shaft. In hindsight, I should have left that until after the welding so I didn't have to go back and clean out the bores. For the flanges, a 19m hole was bored roughly in the center and a bevel for the weld fillet added (or subtracted really). These were then welded up, trying to have the bead at least fully fill the V-groove created. There ended up being a couple of tiny holes, but it's not going to break any time soon. https://pic8.co/d/db331338-7957-4dad-8ab1-de2bb3a688bd.jpg https://pic8.co/d/296e03d9-8e2c-415f-8d1b-6e732e1b8c05.jpg Holding the welded assembly by the shaft, the back was faced off smooth and the corners taken off until the required diameter (the smaller pulley has a slightly smaller flange, which helps to not get them mixed up as the mounting holes aren't perfectly spaced (because I don't have a dividing head or rotary table...yet)). The inner faces of the flanges were also cleaned up by holding them on their outer rim and indicating the shaft in as true as I could so that the resulting face would be perpendicular to the shaft. https://pic8.co/d/4b2fdcee-74cc-4497-a04a-0fd1e2de100c.jpg https://pic8.co/d/33121ae9-2710-42f9-8e7a-b4f2296017cf.jpg The pulleys were also turned on the lathe, the smaller ones all being the same outer size, but ending up with different internal details. One was bored out to fit the flange, another bored out to accept two larger bearings (28x8mm outer dimensions IIRC), the last one was bored out to accept some smaller bearings I had lying around (these were pretty shitty bearings though, but it's just an idler pulley). The drum pulleys had 3 mounting holes drilled in each which took M6 countersunk stainless steel screws. https://pic8.co/d/0d25bf27-c20f-41c7-a7b2-b898ab6891a6.jpg The next thing to make was the belt tensioner. This was fabricated from the same steel bar and some more round bar of various sizes I had lying around. There were two flat bar parts, a mounting bracket and a tensioning arm. First I drilled out the holes while the bar was still rectangular, which allowed for easier clamping. Then the rough shape was cut out with an angle grinder and fine tuned on the bench grinder and linisher belt. Again, for joints that were to be welded, a generous chamfer was used. The various shafts were turned down on the lathe. This time I didn't drill the through hole first, which was good as the main hinge bush was 12mm OD and 8mm ID, which would have left a fairly thin wall. https://pic8.co/d/3bdfc716-90a9-4197-88b8-c934094f7741.png https://pic8.co/d/a7eabb03-36c7-40c3-a3d0-5e35ed2e2947.jpg https://pic8.co/d/8dfecf7d-c80b-4664-8131-baa9a2a19c0f.jpg The first thing to do was to weld the main bush into the tensioner plate. This was then chucked up in the lathe to figure out how crooked it ended up. It wasn't too bad actually, and with a bit of whacking with a hammer (not while it was in the lathe) I was able to get it to be within about 0.02mm runout over the length of the plate. https://pic8.co/d/cd2b5c04-e7f0-4a63-a41e-8bc960f2e8d2.jpg https://pic8.co/d/b4513425-0d5f-4651-bdd6-673cd5b6f357.jpg The second idler pulley shaft was held in place with M6 thread, then welded on the back. Each pulley was held on with an M6 and M5 washer and nut respectively. The length of the shafts was determined to give a very light press on the inner races of the bearings (basically nominal width [+0.0,-0.1]). https://pic8.co/d/851e7c18-6f87-45b7-976f-3c07b200050e.jpg https://pic8.co/d/54f9b4d2-eacf-4d53-81ee-3e8be62c4dcc.jpg To accomodate the tensioner mechanism without increasing the overall width of the machine, it was recessed into the side panel. This was done by first drilling out the corners with a forstner bit, then removing the intervening material with a chisel and hand router plane until the mechanism was close to flush with the panel. https://pic8.co/d/61d0609e-75f9-4470-af20-e5bc82439287.jpg A long 1/4-20 bolt had its head removed and threaded M5 to act as the tensioner rod. This rod has a small nut with a through hold for the threaded rod in it that attaches to the end of the tensioner arm. The other end is held using a custom made bolt and slot headed nut. The nut has a 15mm head on it, which neatly fits into a hole drilled with my smallest forstner bit. https://pic8.co/d/078183c0-a856-409f-9de0-5dc98f51be4f.jpg Thes parts could now be (test) fit onto the frame. https://pic8.co/d/39fe8bdb-ad42-47f2-a1ef-5ad8a7bfdfe8.jpg To hold the infeed table in place, I made some thread inserts. These were made from some 3/8-16 threaded rod that I found lying around which I drilled out and tapped M6 internally. An installation tool was also made, which was just a stub arbor that was threaded M6 on the end, the face diameter of it was about 12mm, so that it would drive the inserts in flush. To install them, a 9mm hole was drilled, then the insert driven in with a drill until flush. I did a test hole in some scrap wood to see how well it would thread form and hold, worked pretty well. https://pic8.co/d/b5d73db4-a765-40ce-a343-ef9fdeec5a84.jpg https://pic8.co/d/76c235b1-b3c0-4702-bd79-b69a39bff0cd.jpg With all the pulleys installed, I could weld up the belt. The belt used is a 6mm polyurethane belt that is joined by heating the ends and welding them together. To do this I made a crude jig and used some old steel strapping as my heating blade. This worked pretty well and I got a good enough join on my second attempt (first attempt join was fine, but the belt was a little too big for the tightest tension setting). The tensioner gives me about 12cm of leeway in terms of belt length. I aimed to be on the long end of the range initially so I can re-join it several times if necessary before I need to use a new belt. https://pic8.co/d/2c75a1a1-9bd3-4bed-badf-d47e8e188c0c.jpg https://pic8.co/d/c53790a7-5d50-447f-bb9c-ed803642da02.jpg With most of the mechanism completed, I moved on to the infeed table. Not knowing exactly what the clearance should be, I made it adjustable using screw down clamps that clamp to arced steel segments. These were made from some 20x3mm flat bar I found. Roughly cut out with the angle grinder, then filed and sanded to shape on the linisher. https://pic8.co/d/121073e4-0b58-4e1b-b20a-20c3484be40e.jpg https://pic8.co/d/8acdc7da-b69d-47a9-b7aa-45f96d0f838f.jpg These were installed on the infeed table in recesses cut into the sides. https://pic8.co/d/2ec2ccc5-cc9c-4db1-bf50-17c8dd8a6c88.jpg The hold-down screws were made in a similar manner to others, with 15mm slot heads 9mm shanks and M6 thread. These screws will thread into a clamping bracket thingy that was made from a tiny bit of steel cut from some 25x10mm bar. The piece of bar was held offset in the 4-Jaw chuck and a boss turned on one end with a 9mm OD, drilled and tapped for M6. The other end will get a hole for a screw that retains it in position. https://pic8.co/d/900fdc44-3431-47ee-b965-9dedab6075d2.jpg https://pic8.co/d/b92ba702-1d44-493d-985e-788c630dafee.jpg One of the last things to be made was the handle. That was a process in itself and is described here: https://poal.co/s/DIY/633366 https://pic8.co/d/efe9fa5b-0c9e-4829-b05f-50a62e98fa47.jpg The carding cloth was then fitted to the two drums. This involved a staple gun and much swearing. No photos were taken of that process as it required at least two hands at all times. On the main drum, the join between the ends of the carding cloth is coverred with a copper plate. This was made from some 12mm copper pipe that was squashed then cold forged into shape. The finished piece was screwed down onto a piece of wood and burnished with a hard screwdriver shaft to work harden the surface a bit and shine it up (while retaining some rustic features). It was finished off with some 1200 grit wet and dry paper for a smooth finish. This plate is a deliberate feature, it gives a space where you can use an awl to lift up the carded fiber to extract it from the drum. https://pic8.co/d/54b85d06-f89a-4c5e-9667-4fbb4585f253.jpg Everything was sanded down, holes in the frame and infeed tables filled with clear epoxy and everything finished with Danish Oil before final assembly. https://pic8.co/d/b672e7c3-ccbc-4479-9461-7e2beb1e47e8.jpg https://pic8.co/d/b559eecc-0e57-47c4-badb-6723a8ee39a8.jpg One final touch was to replace the random nuts and washers that held the idler pulleys on with some knurled thumb nuts which was the second thing I made with my new pinch knurling tool that I bought (The first thing was to knurl a short piece of high tensile fencing wire ~2.5mm diameter to make a replacement axel for my son's monster truck that had it's axel broken while he was at kinder, suprisingly that worked and I was able to repair it close to good as new.). https://pic8.co/d/b536b19f-dfe1-42fa-b14b-9e802525c216.jpg There's one small addition that I still need to do for it. A removable "packer" brush that spans the width of the large drum and is used to gently push the fibers down onto the drum, allowing more fiber to be carded before it needs to be removed.