Is anyone currently making string with a yarn twister, as described by Spool Thread Co?
If so, is it worth it or is there a way the same effect could be achieved a different way?
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Fishing reel gang here. Gives me the quiet of no drill, but seems easy enough. Oh! You need some standard sized paperclips to put on the bell of the fishing reel.
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Spool Thread used the yarn twister to pretwist the threads together before running the wraps and twisting the string.
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Interesting. I just use 2 paperclips. They get about 50 twists by themselves then they get twisted together. I wonder if it gives any difference. If you undershoot the tension you will want something to help keep 2 sets of 6 threads around your bearing and not 12 independent threads.
Where did they talk about this? I’ve heard of Spool Thread Co before, but haven’t had a chance to try it.
When they stopped selling he published a Google doc with the details of how he made the string under a creative commons attribution license.
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Oh yeah. I remember hearing about that. Is this what he’s talking about? https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=K_zjDpbYZmw
Yeah, that’s the thing. He used it to pretwist 4 nylon and 1 poly thread onto a big spool that he then used to wrap his jig. It’s different from some of the other pretwist methods I have seen, where the wraps and done before the pretwist. I just don’t know if it’s worth the price for casual string making.
That’s really interesting. I’m interested in this as well.
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Yeah, my experience with wooly nylon has been mixed, as it’s a hard thread for me to deal with, but I am thinking that having it loosely twisted together before doing the winds would cause/allow it to fluff up a little bit more, so I can imagine how it might impact the final result. However, my best comparison experience would be with Airetic or Bad Wolfe string as I never got any Spool Thread.
I also wonder what, if any, impact this would have on poly, cotton, or poly/cotton blends. I suspect it would matter less, but I don’t know if anyone has ever tried it.
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So I’m trying something based on this discussion. I just hand wound about 1,500 yards of three threads to an empty cone. It’s my big thread egg baby. Its nice. It makes for 4 passes of one spool instead of 12 passes of 1 each, or 4 passes of a wicked handful. Eh. It’s not a game breaker, but its nice.
Edit.
BEHOLD THE EGG!
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For what it’s worth, I don’t pre-twist any threads for my string. I like having a ton of different colorways so pre-twisting seems kind of counter-productive, seems like it would only be a good idea if you’re making a ton of string in the same color combo.
So yeah I can’t really speak to how pre-twisting works, but I figured if anybody’s tried my strings at least you know they’re not pre-twisted.
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Well, I ordered a yarn twister, so maybe next week I’ll have some new opinions.
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I made these using the Spool Thread co method today. I think the yarn twister really helps blend the nylon together. The four on the right were before I started trying to be more precise with my reduction. I have some reduction tests I want to try this week and then I want to see what happens with poly, cotton, and blends if they are pretwisted with the yarn twister. I’m skeptical that it will matter much, though, since the other thread types are a bit less fluffy.
I’m happy with how this string turned out although I have never played with Spool Thread, so I don’t know if this is close to the “real thing”, but it’s certainly less bouncy than the strings I have made with wooly nylon and nylon/poly blends.
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Haven’t been on the forums and missed this thread. Awesome looking strings @Malachi !
We also use the yarn twister. There are several benefits… Turns tying a lot of knots into not as many knots, only have to make one down-and-back per string, and also distributes the colors of each individual thread much better. If there’s no pre-twist the distribution of any individual thread can be pretty sporadic. With the yarn twister, each color is distributed more evenly. Would highly recommend for anyone trying to make a decent amount of strings. Also depending on your rig, it might be less valuable.
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Thanks!
It has certainly saved me from having to do as many passes with the thread.
Have you used it much just poly or cotton?
That’s some beautiful consistency. Very nice.
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i’m not even sure how to ask this question… One of the things that frustrated me when I was trying to make nylon string was how to measure the string compression when doing the first twist. How hard I pulled back on the string would affect how long I had to twist the thread to get the same amount of compression. I think I remember someone suggesting that a wired screwdriver would result in a more consistent twist than a battery operated screwdriver. I suppose that’s actually a different issue, but I’ve been confused about how SpoolCo’s instructions measure compression in inches or percentages of the string length, and then don’t say anything about how hard we should pull on the thread as we’re twisting. But yea, those strings look really great.
I’ve noticed in some 100% nylon strings that mixed color strings have a different feeling to solid color strings (mixed color string seems better to me); I wonder if buying 2 or 3 different types of wooly nylon (in the same color) would result in a similar quality in a (mostly) solid color string, although I suppose different manufacturers would actually have very slightly different color thread. Maybe it would give a nice variegated color.
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That is a really good question and I don’t think there is a clear answer. I’m using a batter powered Dremel and I just try to keep a consistent amount of tension on the string as it twists, but it is an inexact process. I think consistency with this method is probably just a matter of practice. Using an electric drill would probably allow better control if the speed is fixed and time is tracked. It might also be possible to have a rig that shows the amount of tension on the line so you could measure both that and the distance of the reduction and target a specific level of tension at a specific reduction length. That seems like overkill for casual string making, though.
The impact that commercial dying has on weight and consistency is a whole other issue that is probably difficult to address. If it’s anything like paper, different colors (dyes) will have slightly different properties. For my first experiments with Maxi-Lock (Spool Thread formula), I used white in order to avoid any variables related to colors (with the thought that I could always dye it later if I really wanted to).
My (limited) experience with Maxi-Lock stretch nylon and wooly nylon is that, while similar, the wooly nylon is a little more elastic. The white strings I posted a photo of only have one poly thread, but they are much less bouncy than the wooly nylon strings I have made with one or two poly threads included.
In the future, I plan to do some experiments with mixes of the white Maxi-Lock nylon and the few colors of wooly nylon I have.
As a side note, I know one company, YLI Threads, sells wooly nylon and “Elite” poly that are color matched.
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