Shopsmith Forums

Posted: **Wed Feb 19, 2025 4:01 pm**

I am going to attempt to make a yarn swift and winder set for my MIL. Has anyone else ever made one of these? I bought plans https://www.lisaboyer.com/Claytonsite/y ... epage.html but am also making some adjustments to them. The person made them for a scroll saw so has multiple pieces made by cutting them out of plywood then stacking and gluing them together. I am going to attempt to make some of them on the lathe instead. Since I do not use the lathe often, we will have to see how they turn out. My husband bought me a couple of glued up 1 x 12 x 4 pieces of Acacia wood that I am using for the non-lathe parts. The boards are closer to 5/8 in thick but I do not see where it will be an issue. I am using hanger bolts and threaded inserts where possible to eliminate hardware that can get lost. I changed the stand set up for the swift to a crossed lap joint. I also replaced the home made clamps with some Milescraft fence style clamps. There was some tear-out from cutting and drilling so am filling as I go before I get to the sanding step.

: Acacia board with parts layed out for cutting.; 20250219_133423.jpg (200.14 KiB) Viewed 54979 times

: swift base parts and parts for the winder.; 20250219_122541.jpg (270.67 KiB) Viewed 54979 times

: swift arms, upright and parts for the winder; 20250219_122502.jpg (272.25 KiB) Viewed 54979 times

: winder drive pully; 20250219_122510.jpg (225.29 KiB) Viewed 54979 times

Posted: **Wed Feb 19, 2025 7:56 pm**

Brenda
This project makes me think of my Grandma.
She made lots of stuff using yarn.

One of the things that I still have is the yarn covered coat hangers.

I will follow along with your project.

Posted: **Thu Feb 20, 2025 1:22 pm**

Looks like a fun project. Thanks for including the link, otherwise I would have no idea what in the world a "yarn swift" was! Looking forward to more pix as you go along.

Posted: **Thu Feb 20, 2025 9:41 pm**

Yes, please keep us posted. I also looked at the links to see what it is and why it is needed. Very interesting.

Posted: **Sun Feb 23, 2025 1:03 pm**

I have!

And to add to the "cool" factor, I made the geared version rather than the belt-drive. I did just about everything on the SS, including the scroll-sawing. I, too, made parts on the SS lathe where that made sense.

The main mistake I made was not ensuring the SS in drill-press mode was at a perfect 90 degrees. You can see the gears wobble a bit as they rotate, and that causes a bit of recurring drag. That's not a real problem, though. The worse problem is that the rubber band will work its way off its mounting disk, causing the skein not to rotate as it's supposed to. That may be related to my not-quite-90 degree angle issue. I'm just now noticing that my rubber-band "base" isn't quite a perfect circle, either. It's really a complicated winding motion that creates the perfect yarn "cake", and winding flaws will ruin it.

Even as it is, it works fairly well if you don't go too fast and fix the rubber band when it goes astray. I have no doubt that it would work quite well if I'd been more careful with drill-press alignment. I might've fixed things many years ago, but my wife abandoned yarn crafts for thread crafts soon after making the machine.

The swift is quite straightforward. Hard to go wrong there.

Posted: **Wed Feb 26, 2025 10:57 am**

davebodner wrote: ↑Sun Feb 23, 2025 1:03 pm I have!

And to add to the "cool" factor, I made the geared version rather than the belt-drive. I did just about everything on the SS, including the scroll-sawing. I, too, made parts on the SS lathe where that made sense.

The main mistake I made was not ensuring the SS in drill-press mode was at a perfect 90 degrees. You can see the gears wobble a bit as they rotate, and that causes a bit of recurring drag. That's not a real problem, though. The worse problem is that the rubber band will work its way off its mounting disk, causing the skein not to rotate as it's supposed to. That may be related to my not-quite-90 degree angle issue. I'm just now noticing that my rubber-band "base" isn't quite a perfect circle, either. It's really a complicated winding motion that creates the perfect yarn "cake", and winding flaws will ruin it.

Even as it is, it works fairly well if you don't go too fast and fix the rubber band when it goes astray. I have no doubt that it would work quite well if I'd been more careful with drill-press alignment. I might've fixed things many years ago, but my wife abandoned yarn crafts for thread crafts soon after making the machine.

The swift is quite straightforward. Hard to go wrong there.

I am doing the belt driven because I figured it would be a little more forgiving if everything was not perfect. Did you use plywood to build yours?

Thanks for the heads up about drilling the holes. I have used a drill guide for some of the swift but I can see where I will need to use the drill press for final drilling on the winder. I was thinking about using the lathe to do some of the drilling but have reconsidered.

I have some leather cord/sewing machine belting that I was going to use instead of finding the correct sizes rubber bands. It is easy enough to find, just need to stretch the belt before cutting to length. I am thinking of making a groove for the leather to sit in on the lathe while I round the pieces.

I have gotten the corners clipped on all the parts and the swift parts even rounded on the sanding disk. I have got some of the parts of the swift rough cut to shape and size but plan to sand to final dimensions. It will clean up any of my imperfect cuts. I really need to practice more on my scroll saw.

: 20250220_161543.jpg (236.78 KiB) Viewed 49577 times

: 20250226_090302.jpg (233.53 KiB) Viewed 49577 times

: 20250226_090327.jpg (193.05 KiB) Viewed 49577 times

Posted: **Wed Feb 26, 2025 11:33 am**

Yeah, I suspect the belt-drive will be much more forgiving of wobble. I used Baltic birch for everything not shaped on the lathe. For the swift, I just used whatever softwood I had lying around.

One of these days I want to make one of his clocks.

Posted: **Wed Mar 12, 2025 6:15 pm**

I decided that I should make one for my mom also so now I'm making two of them. Not really a big deal as it is fairly easy to just double the quantity of parts. While my mom does not do anywhere near the amount of yarn work that my MIL does, it will still come in handy.

Since we have had a couple of really nice weather days this week, I have put two coats of hard wax oil on the swifts minus the handles. I still need to finish up some drilling on the parts for the winders before switching to the lathe to finish parts for the winders and the handles for the swifts.

: 20250312_165219.jpg (235.06 KiB) Viewed 39707 times

Posted: **Wed Mar 12, 2025 11:45 pm**

Nice Progress.

The pieces look Great.

Posted: **Thu Mar 13, 2025 11:36 am**

Don't you love those multi-functional(bolt or nut) knobs? I do!

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