# Fiber Mill pictures



## Callieslamb (Feb 27, 2007)

On Wed, I drove to the mill to pick up my fleeces. I was going to see my son at his Scout camp and the mill was only a couple hours from there so it worked out really well.

I sent my fleeces to Jill Deitsch at Heritage Flock Fiber Mill in Midland, MI
I have never used a mill so I was nervous. Jill's specialty is doing smaller batches. If you have 1 lb of white and 1 lb of black, she'll do them for you. No price adjustments for not enough fleece. Her prices are great too. I sent just at 40 lbs and it cost me about $125. I pre-washed my fleeces to get some of the gunk out and lighten their weight. She needed to wash them further but that's okay. I received 34 lbs back. 

Another ammenity she offers, is that you can come and help process your wool. We were able to work it out and I 'helped'.
Here's her picker

As the fleece goes through the picker, it blows it into a small room nextdoor. My job was to put the fleece on the belt and then when it was all through- spray the wool with anti-static stuff and gather it all up.

Once picked, we carried the basket to the carding machine


Again, my job was to put the fluffy fleece onto the belt. It helps to keep the fleece away from the edges so the rollers don't eat it.
Here's the fleece coming out the other end in rovings



I was surprised at how fast it all went. I am very pleased with the rovings that Jill (and her machines) did for me. I think I could spend all day there "helping". I was thrilled to watch the machines work. Jill said some days the machine are fickle and others they are a dream to work with. She obviously loves her work and it shows.


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## DragonFlyFarm (Oct 12, 2012)

What a great experience! Thanks for sharing the pics....I've been to the local fiber mill, but they were not running the equipment when they did the tour. It must have been so much fun to see it come out ready to spin!


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## Miz Mary (Feb 15, 2003)

WOW !! That would be a dream job !! That is really interesting how fast it must be ......


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## MamaRed (Dec 18, 2013)

Very cool to see the different machines. I have a few gorgeous auburn-colored brown alpaca blankets. I want to send them to a mill to be processed, then spin it up and make a big, fluffy alpaca afghan.


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## Kasota (Nov 25, 2013)

What a great experience! It's really interesting to see the pictures and how it works! I can't imagine having to repair one of those machines if it were to break down. 

Isn't it amazing what people can invent? Someone, somewhere, (or a group of someones) envisioned it, engineered it, built it.


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## hercsmama (Jan 15, 2004)

Great pics!
I'm curious, just how much square footage would you say those machines take up?


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## Kasota (Nov 25, 2013)

I can almost hear the gears in Debi's brain turning....ound:

Five will get you ten she's been looking up "wool processing equipment" on the internet.


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## Callieslamb (Feb 27, 2007)

That's great. The more mills the better for all of us. I think the room was about 12x14 to 20 ft. 1/4 of the room was taken up with boxes of fleeces. Another room had the washer and drying racks- smaller than the room with the machinery. Not a lot of space. I wonder more about where to put all the water from washing fleeces...... A direct line to the garden would be nice- maybe.


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