How to Clean a Drum Carder
Also, how to find a new drum carder cloth if yours can’t be cleaned.
Getting a drum carder used (or using it on fibre that has some serious vegetable matter) can result in a dirty drum carder – how to clean it takes a bit of hard work but it’s definitely worth it!
Please don’t use a water pick, or anything water related in your cleaning of your drum carder. It’s a super expensive piece of equipment and we don’t want to see it warp or ruin on you.
To Clean your Drum Carder
First off, give the drum carder a good shake outside. Try and get as much dust and debris off it as you can – be careful not to drop it though.
If you have an air compressor, you can give it a light blowing to get the dust off. Make sure that if you got it used, that you wear a mask for this section. Over the years we’ve seen many drum carders with mouse poop on it.
Next, you’ll want to invest in a hair brush cleaning comb – one similar to this one on Amazon – Click Here for the Link
Using these tools, gently remove the built up fibres from your drum carder. A good light will be invaluable for this process – as you don’t want to miss anything. Slowly turn the carder as you go and take your time.
If you have any tines that are misaligned, you can find a hollow tube, such as an empty pen cartridge, to place over the top and straighten them out. Just make sure no ink is remaining – you don’t want to stain future fibres by accident.
After all of that, if you can’t get the cloth clean or it proves to be too much work for you, you can find new drum cloths. Simply search for drum carder cloth – the possibilities are endless.
If you choose to purchase a new cloth, you’ll have to consider the fibres that you’ll be carding on your drum carder.
The finer the fibre – the most TPI or Tines Per Inch, you’ll want.
If you enjoy fine fibres, such as Alpaca, Silk, or Merino
If you love working with medium fibres, such as Corriedale, Jacob or Perendale
Pick a cloth with around 70 TPI.
This is also a great option if you have no clue what you’re going to create. It can pretty much handle anything.
Photo by Arthur Mazi on Unsplash
If you adore longwools, or if you want a rough batt with texture
Something that you can pull through your drum carder once and move on that creates lots of texture – you’ll want to consider something around 50 TPI.
Photo by Tamas Tuzes-Katai on Unsplash
We recommend 70 TPI – as spinners we know that your preferences will change depending on availability, colour selection and impulse – so we prefer the middle of the road drum carding cloth.
If you’d like to read more about drum carding and carding cloth – check out this article from SpinOff Magazine