# Drum carder for large amounts of fiber



## BrownYaks (Mar 6, 2013)

So, I've read the older threads but thought I would start another one.

I have about 50 sheep and expect I'll be keeping back about 15 fleeces. I do have pretty nice hand cards but the lord know I don't want to card all of that by hand. They are Rambouillet cross. 

I'm hoping to use a diz to make roving. The more I can make the better! I'm not certain if I want an electric or crank model. 

What would you guys recommend.


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## MullersLaneFarm (Jul 23, 2004)

How much do you want to spend on one?

For producing large amounts of batts, I'd get one that is motorized and chain driven.

More importantly, get carding cloth with the highest TPI you can ... no lower than 112


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## Wind in Her Hair (Jul 18, 2002)

agreeing with Marchie - (nope, my mistake - make that Cyndi-:teehee if you don't want to send the fiber off to a mill, AND if you want to get this done in your lifetime AND if you don't have an army to help you 24/7, a motorized (electric) drum carder is what you would benefit from - and they run about $1000 or better.


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## Marchwind (May 10, 2002)

WIHH, Huh :huh:? Did I say that? Not on this thread unless I'm really losing it :hair

Anyway, agree with the above. Or if this is going to become a regular thing maybe consider purchasing a mini mill, especially if you re planning on selling this.


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## Wind in Her Hair (Jul 18, 2002)

Marchie, I sure thought I saw you say that...maybe I am losing it...or maybe we are losing it together? :buds: (Nope, it was just me losin' it.)


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## BrownYaks (Mar 6, 2013)

You guys crack me up!
So, I'm definately going to aim for a motorized one. As of right now I don't think a mini-mill is exactly what I need, but maybe in a few years. Right, now I get something like a $1.15/lb for our whiteface and $0.88/lb for our black wool in the wool pool. So finding an alternative market may become necessary. 

Is there a particular width you would recommend?


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## DragonFlyFarm (Oct 12, 2012)

I know you specifically asked about drum carders, but have you thought about selling raw fleeces? Rambouillet is so lovely to spin (not sure what they are crossed with) but if it's low VM and with a good skirting you should be able to get a decent price for it. I would definitely get a motorized drum carder, I don't process nearly as much wool as you do and my hand crank is a pain. When my little niece comes over she cranks for me....makes things go so much faster


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## hotzcatz (Oct 16, 2007)

You can set a hand crank carder onto a treadle base or a bicycle base and then you don't have to hand crank it. Leaves both hands free to play with fiber. Basically you just put a big wheel/pulley over the handle and add a cord. I used aquarium air hose since I had some laying around. The carder had been carding raw wool so it's got dirt on it when I took the picture. A bit of lanolin on the carder teeth is good around here because of our humidity. It was an old carder that I bought from another spinner and spent an afternoon cleaning and fixing it up although then I ran dirty wool through it. Oh well, it's a tool and tools get used.










I just cut a big circle from the end of a pine board (I think it had been a shelf at one time) with a jigsaw, drilled a hole in the center and then put it on a pivot point (a screw in a board) and rotated against a stationary drum sander to get it really round. Then rotated it against the edge of a handsaw set in a bench vise to make the groove on the edge. No real wood shop tools were used so anyone can make one. The handle is held to the board with a wood clamp made from another scrap of board. It can be removed if ever I want the drum carder to just be a hand crank model again. There is a bit of danger when using it, though, since the handle is flying around in circles. Should you be using this in public or around small children, making a cage around the flying handle might be good, although you do use the handle occasionally so just making one for folks standing near the carder would be all that's necessary. Hmm, if I found an old fan screen, that would probably be useful for that if I ever wanted to take the carder to a demo. Well, the thing isn't easy to haul around, it does kinda make your drum carder a stay at home bit of machinery.










Still, even with the treadle based carder, it's still a bit of a haul to get through a fleece. Although a lot of that depends on the fleece. Merino takes longer than Clun Forest and alpaca runs through the carder like a breeze.

Selling wool to the wool pool is about one step above giving it to the shearers in exchange for shearing, IMHO. Some folks list their fleeces with pictures of individual locks and sell the fleeces to hand spinners.

Or send the wool into a mill and have it processed into yarn and then sell the yarn to a local yarn store. Around here folks are howling for local fibers. You find a local knitting group and sell to them. Or find a local dyer who wants local fibers.

I'm thinking of setting up a small fiber mill in the backyard of our new house. Have to find out if it's allowable as well as how much it would cost, but hopefully I can start small and work up. There's not room for sheep, but folks who have sheep around here are in the same fix you're in and not sure what to do with their fleeces other than sell them to the wool pool.


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## BrownYaks (Mar 6, 2013)

We certainly have room for a mill. We have two spare houses. One is smaller, and one was raised 9 kids with ease. We also have a four bay shop that we aren't using.

I have considered selling raw fleeces but really am not certain if they are worth squat. They are predominately rambouillet and crossed with what we call a horned dorset. I'm excited to play with it! The Rambouillet ram is out of a tested fine fiber flock in Montana.

Also, selling the wool in the wool pool isn't even paying for shearing.


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## Maura (Jun 6, 2004)

Would you get enough money if you sold washed wool? Washing wool in little pots takes so much time, I&#8217;ll bet people would pay for washed wool and card it themselves.


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## Pearl B (Sep 27, 2008)

Maura said:


> Would you get enough money if you sold washed wool? Washing wool in little pots takes so much time, Iâll bet people would pay for washed wool and card it themselves.


I would be one of those people! :happy2:


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## hotzcatz (Oct 16, 2007)

Buying a new mill sized carding machine is $$$$. Not sure how long it would take 50 sheep's fleeces to pay for a mill sized machine, but I'd guess it would take a really long time. However, the way I see it, the underlying issue is how to increase the value of the sheep's fleeces. 

First thing is, don't sell them to the wool pool. Sell them directly to hand spinners since hand spinners will pay more per fleece. Folks who sell fleeces to hand spinners usually name or number the fleeces. Then they take a picture of the whole fleece, a few pictures of a typical lock from the fleece and then write a short description of the fiber. If you have the name of the sheep it came from, that's a plus. Then the fleeces can be sold online. Either through your own farm's website, Etsy or even here on HT.

Skirting the fleeces will improve their value and should be done before taking pictures. Washing them should, too, but that's rather a lot of work. Although, if you're gonna card the wool with a big commercial carder, then you'll have to skirt, wash and dry before running it through the carder. So, those processes would need to be addressed if you're considering a really big carding machine.

You could possibly have a mill make them into yarn and then sell them as yarn. Then all you'd have to do is skirt them really heavily and pick out the VM and ship them off to the mill. Check with your local yarn shops about if they would be interested in buying local fibers. Find out their commission rate or how much they'd pay per ounce for your yarn. Figure out what your yarn would retail at and consider about half that amount as what the yarn shops would probably pay. Run the numbers on how much it would be to have the fleeces made into yarn. There is some loss due to lanolin and dirt so the washed weight will be less than the raw weight. Don't forget shipping and your time for putting on labels, as well. You can leave the yarn "natural" colored for folks who either want to dye it themselves or don't want dye on their yarn. Or, you can dye the yarn and sell it as "hand dyed", that's yet another way to get "value added".

Or, you could try multiple methods and see which works best for you. Selling to the wool pool doesn't make much at all.


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## MamaRed (Dec 18, 2013)

I was able to buy a used, electric drum carder for $500. The woman I bought it from was upgrading to something super fancy. Check Craigslist or your spinners guild if you'd be interested in used. I LOVE mine.


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## okittie (Mar 29, 2015)

I love to buy raw fleeces, and process them myself. Call me crazy, but I love the smell of lanolin. :teehee: Sometimes I buy by the pound, sometimes a whole fleece, depending on price and the time I have to play with it. There are a lot of people who do the same, and they are all over facebook and etsy, not to mention ebay. I would love to be able to buy local, but have found no one within a reasonable distance who raises sheep. Have you thought of trying to sell them raw, or for $? more washed, or $?? more washed and carded? Options are always nice. It is up to you how much time and effort you want to put into it, but you could, and should, be making more from your wool.


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## IowaLez (Mar 6, 2006)

You would want to get a big drum carder, motorized, like the Fancy Kitty Tomcat. For that many fleeces you'll never get them all done with a hand crank model with a regular sized drum. It wouldn't be worth your time, unless your count your hourly wages at zero and you have 15 hours a day of free time. I saw a Fancy Kitty Tomcat in use, and I was drooling all over the floor, and the lady and her Tomcat! Someday, I want to own one! It was great, a really good machine for doing big batts and getting LOTS of fibers carded. Just gorgeous, and well built. High quality.

You have to pay yourself a decent amount of $ for your time to make it worthwhile!

A mini mill set up is going to run a good $115,000 just for basic stuff, about $250,00 for a full set up. It needs at last a 1,000 sq ft building, concrete floor, tall enough access doors for a fork lift to bring in the machines and set them in proper position. you also have to build a special enclosed room for the picked fibers to be blown into from the picking machine. Then you have to have a couple of days for training on how to use them, and then there's a period of time for you to get really good at them and know what you're doing. Getting the financing is the hardest part, and unless you're going to run the mill as an actual biz, it doesn't make $ sense.

You might want to contact Dakota Fiber Mill, in Kindred, ND. Chris is doing all our No American domestic yak project fiber processing. Flat rate of $9.50 /lb, incoming weight, that includes wash, pick, blend, card into roving. Best price anywhere, she's a great gal to work with. She's working with us and our eventual goal is up to 11,000# finished yak blend yarns and rovings per year by 2017, and she's arranged collaboration with Rach-Al-Paca fiber mill in Mn, in my home town, to get that much done each year. Makes more sense than our original plan of building our own mill by 2018 just for the yak work.


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## silkcreekfarm (Jul 28, 2015)

We had a Fancy Kitty Big Tom carder and used it quite a bit when we had alpacas. Easy to use and care for.


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## Spark (Aug 16, 2015)

I have a Pat Green picker and drum carder. With 15 fleeces I would possibly consider a motorized one, but then again, I have also finished an entire fleece with mini combs. You can also consider a FB group called spin a pound, get a pound. Basically you trade part of the fleece for someone else processing it. Just a thought.


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