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:

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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

challagan

Very cool, something you don't see every day there Nick! Thanks for sharing the pics and I bet you will look quite dapper in that new scarf made from the Peruvian Yak

Hey, that B & D jig saw, that was my very first jig saw and the drill to match that I received as my very first Christmas gift in 1980 from my wife. Long time since gone about 1990 or so.

Nice work Nick!

Corey

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kp91

Great presentation!

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Doug
1 John 1:9

Nickbee

ya that jig saw SCREAMS retro!!!

Bob

Nick.... nice job on both the project and the pictures. That is an unsual project for sure and very functional at that.

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Cheers,
Bob

harrysin

Now THAT'S my kind of photo-shoot. Neat idea and really well made. I guarantee that once you have routed circles which need virtually no sanding, you will never return to the jig saw.

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Harry

Nickbee

I agree Harry! And if you see the sander I used it's only 5". I got it for my hobby of building RC airplanes. It got the job done but it took a while! I look forward to cutting circles with my router the next time I need to!

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!