Wrist Mounted Yarn Spool

myminifactory

This is a 3D printable, wrist mountable, hand cranked, yarn spooling machine!Kind of a mouthful....Designed with knitters and crocheters in mind, this device allows you to keep your yarn, close to your hands, and in control, at all times.Please look through the photos, to get an idea of how to assemble all the pieces.Feel free to ask any questions you may have, I am happy to help in any way I can! The entire ball of yarn in the photo, is wrapped on the spool in the thumbnail photo.It was designed to use nylon strapping to go around your wrist, but my wife wants to knit a wrist strap for it, and I don't have one just yet...Will update the photos with a wrist strap, as soon as I have a wrist strap to photo :PYou can print multiple spools, for each type of yarn you have.Printing notes, the base part, that mounts to your wrist, was printed upside down, and with supports under the overhang for the nylon strap holes.Designed in multiple pieces, so avoid support material, and also to allow for multiple color options.Assembly notes - You will want to glue the two pieces of the spool together, they fit together nicely off the printer, but while I was spooling the first yarn ball, it popped apart on me.  I used gorilla glue to glue the center spindle to the wrist base, the two pieces of the spool and the cap on the bottom of the handle.  Be careful when gluing the handle pieces, that you don't bind the handle in place, it is designed to spin in place, to make winding that much easier.The handle and the spool are keyed together, so the spool doesn't slide around the handle.  Remove the handle from it's slot when you are done winding, and loosely screw the nut on top.Don't tighten the nut too much, or you will have to loosen it a lot, as it will self tighten if it is making contact with the spool.  It is only there to keep the spool from falling off your wrist when you move around.  Keep it loose for best opporation.When winding the yarn on the spool, I ran the yarn between my knees, to keep some slight tention on the line.  The nicer you wind the yarn, the more you will get on the spool.I tilted the spool back and forth, while winding, to guide the wire from one side to the other, as smoothly as possible.I would LOVE some feedback on this.  I know it could use some improvements, but I don't knit, so I am hoping the community will use it, and give me some tips to make it better!Please feel free to ask questions, if you have any.  I can upload additional photos if needed, or modify some of the parts, if desired :)Thanks for downloading this thing, I hope it is as useful as it sounds like it would be, to a non knitter :P