Dreaming of a drum carder
I know this doesn’t make sense, but June’s entry yesterday about measuring yardage suddenly got me crazy about buying a drum carder. Non sequitur, I know. This summer before my birthday, all I could think about was getting a drum carder — but then when it actually came down to ordering it, I figured I had already bought too much stuff (hand combs, hand cards, too much fibre, etc.) so it never happened. But now we are closing in on Fall… and that means… Christmas is coming!
Ok, so it’s a bit of a long shot, but I can daydream about it. Here’s what I’m looking at:
It’s the Fricke/Strauch Petite Carder which is a 6 1/2″ wide carder with a brush attachment. This carder is $538 CDN from Shuttleworks (where I got the hand carders and combs from). The other carder is the Louet Junior Roving Carder which is 4″ wide and costs $415 CDN. Sure, in my dreams I’d get the Strauch Finest but that’s nearly $900 CDN, so um, no.
Anybody have either of these carders? What do you think? What do you like or dislike about it? Suggestions are very welcome.
I’d like to be able to blend my own fibres or dyed rovings. Like blending some alpaca and angora or silk and merino. Or, blending dyed fibres to make heathered yarns. That kind of stuff. Or, just carding faster than by hand! I’m leaning towards the Strauch Petite because it’s wider and seems better made but the Louet looks better and finished… hmm, off to day dream now.
Tags: drum carder
My sister has the Louet Jr. carder and loves it! She got it at WEBS for about $375 US….
you are really serious about spinning.. i love your yarns… will you ever decide to sell them to us drooling knitbloggers?
I have a Fricke/Strauch doublewide motorized carder. It has the finest (128 ppi? I forget) carding cloth on it, I use a wallpaper brush instead of the Duncan brush if I want to pack down fibers (not always a good idea, btw). It has been awesome for medium and coarser fibers. Less good for fine stuff, but I think that may be partially attributable to the electrical aspect of the carder - I can’t control speed, and things need to slow WAAAAY down to card fine wools. This won’t be a problem if you get a manual carder. (Otto recently brainstormed with me about how I might be able to slow it down, but I haven’t tried to implement any of his ideas yet.)
I have a little trouble peeling off the end of the batt. An old friend from TechSpin (Maury, he doesn’t seem to post much anymore) told me he believes there are burrs on the ends of the pins that prevent easy release. He recommended Pat Green carders above all others, partially because they grind the tips of their pins very carefully. I am still thinking about getting a PG carder. Someday. I have seen wonderful and smooth results from PG carders with the ultrafine fibers that pretty much go to nep hell with other carders.
But let’s get back to the carders you are actually considering! I can’t say enough fantastic things about Otto Strauch - he is generous, kind, an excellent craftsman, honest, knowledgable - I am proud to consider him a friend. Before we even got to know each other, he hauled my massive carder from northern NJ to VA for some repairs and upgrades (I bought my carder used, it was actually made by Fricke and was quite beat up, I had the carding cloth replaced and new aluminum blocks installed), and he hauled it back up - all to save me ~$400 (USD) in shipping costs. (The motor makes it quite heavy.) I haven’t had as many interactions with his wife Joanne, but the few that I have had were all very pleasant. I support them wholeheartedly and tell you that you won’t regret dealing with them.
I’ll tell you my rule of thumb for equipment - buy the absolute best tools you can afford. This applies for anything - car, kitchen, garden, fiber - they will make the hard tasks easy, and the easy tasks unbelievably enjoyable.
(I have no direct experience with the Louet carder.)
I’m so jealous. This one of the next “toys” on my fiber want list. I’d love to play with blending fibers. What fun! Good luck choosing something.
Tanya
Get a Patrick Green. The hand crank models are about 400 to 500 dollars. I have the fanci card which is eletric and does such a good job I would not want to use anything else. My spinning guild just did a drum carder weekend where we compared several types of drum carders, the Patrick Green was the top winner. Visit Susan’s fiber shop on line if you have questions. She has more knoledge then anyone else I know.
I have had a Fricke Petite and a Louet “regular size” - I think I may have had the finer cloth on the Louet if a finer cloth is available for those, and I’m pretty sure I have a fine cloth on the Fricke if it doesn’t come standard, as I wanted to use it for angora when I had a house bunny…
I shopped around a lot before I purchased the Fricke, after being terribly disappointed with the Louet. The Louet has a selling point of “making gigantic batts” (thick) but let me tell you, this is NOT what you want! The teeth mesh (and make an ANNOYING crunching noise) and what this does is rip apart your fibers and make TONS of neps.
The Fricke - even the Petite model - is by far a superior carder, with a wonderful, adjustable intake roller. Works great on fine fibers and no tearing so no neps. Might take you a little longer since you have to make “thinner” batts, but in the long run the product is SO much nicer. Since you will want to do fine fibers GET THE BRUSH that sits on top - it is AMAZING. I added mine a couple of years after I got my carder and I love it.
There are many more reasons why I prefer the Fricke, and sold my Louet - let me know if you need more. If I could show you the batts both created, you would instantly know why I love the Fricke. (And preparation is everything - never, ever forget to pre-tease your fibers so that the carder stresses them as little as possible! There is this pre-teaser thingie available that clamps to a table, and you can quickly open up your fibers on that - check The Woolery, it’s only about $12 and very worth the price!)
Spin-Off ran an article where Susan of Susan’s Fiber Shop compared models - I know there were corrections to the article, and I’m not sure how unbiased it could have been, but that might give you some additional specs as a starting point.
If you get the Fricke, get it assembled - do NOT try to do it yourself or the intake wheel will puncture your poor little fingers. And be very aware and careful when feeding the fibers in… they aren’t kidding when they say it’s sharp!
OK, this is really weird karma, Jeff just came in here and mentioned finishing our Pimm’s before the summer is ended… and the only reason we got it was because of YOU. Sometimes that man really freaks me out…
Have a good one, Felicia!
Wow… Impressive materials! I wish I could give advice, but um, I have no clue
Blending your own yarns sounds divine!
the spinner’s and weaver’s housecleaning page has a louet roving drum carder, 6 months old going for $275!including shipping! good luck
hi felicia (that’s your name?), nope it didn’t felt. took care to heat up slowly from room temp, then cool down slowly to room temp and resist tempering with it in between, esp. no washing/rinsing until it really cools down.
but if you’re asking if it spins differently before and after painting, i’d have to say, yes, a little. most times, not very noticeable.
i got a louet drum carder from the same site a few weeks back. it arrived last week. i cheated and never quite mastered handcarding.
I’d go for the petite. I have used both a petite and a louet and the petite carder does a much much better job on finer fibers IMHO. Otto Strauch is a wonderful man and completely stands by his product. I used to have a doublewide electric Fricke before I bought the Supercarder. If I had a choice between Fricke and Pat Green, other than the Supercarder (which is outstanding), I would opt for the Fricke
Hi Georgia. I’m new to your blog (been lurking for a while) and I have a totally off-topic question that I hope you won’t mind answering. What kind of camera do you use to get such incredible pics? I’m in the market for a new camera (actually I just bought one that I’m not happy with and will be exchanging it for something better) and am wondering if you would mind sharing what kind you use.
Many thanks!
Patrick Green carders is just in Chilliwack. Why don’t you give them a call and go visit? I bought my carder from them. I’ve never used any other so I have no basis for comparison. TOLL FREE 1-877-898-2273 DIRECT LINE 1-604-858-6020
http://www.patgreencarders.com
I bought the Petite for my birthday this year and am so glad I decided against the roving carder, although that’s what I wanted first. If you read “Color in Spinning” you can do all of the experiments in there on the Petite, even if it’s not as wide as the full sized carders. But the roving carder will just not do this stuff, too skinny. Hope you get what you want, though!
I had the Petite and Mr Strauch is a kind man; very friendly and helpful. I sold it three months later for a Patrick Green Deb’s Deluxe. I personally think the Petite is a wonderful carder but I find that the Patrick Green is smoother and I produced batts faster. Regarding loft, they both produce lofty batts. As for hand cards, I personally think Otto Strauch’s hand cards are the best in the market; personally it beats Howard brush hands down.
Arie
I am getting out of the business (had an alpaca farm), and have a Strauch Petite Carder that I was going to put on ebay - google found your blog - it’s barely been used (with 14 alpacas to take care of I never really got the time to do the spinning I thought I would) - I have a dear friend in Canada so could use him to get it there (so you don’t have HST,PST, and any other provincial taxes, he’s in Oshawa, Ontario) - Let me know, I know Canadian prices can be brutal sometimes. If not, you’ll see it on ebay in about a week!
Cheers,
Maureen