How to Use the Wild Carder
Clamp your Wild Carder to a bench or table.
Fleece - We recommend you lightly wash your fleece prior to
carding. Tease the tips of the staples with a flick carder, pull
the staple apart sideways, place on the feed-in tray and turn
the handle clockwise. Card small amounts of fibre at a time.
Allow the fibres to feed-in, don’t hold back.
Prepared fibre - Peel sliver into strips, stretch to lengthen
and spread it out sideways. Place on the feed-in tray and turn
handle clockwise. Allow the fibres to feed-in, don’t hold back.
NOTE: For easy carding spread out your fibre as you place on
the feed-in tray.
Wild carding - Prepare short pieces of fibre, fabric, ribbon,
feathers, noils, cocoons, paper etc. Make a sliver sandwich -
Place your embellishments on top and cover with a thin layer
of sliver.
Adjust the packer brush to pack the fibres down into the teeth
of the large drum.
Once the teeth on the large drum are full of fibre or fibre starts
accumulating on the small drum, stop carding.
NOTE: Ensure all fibres remain between the guide pegs on the
feed-in tray. This will avoid fibres being caught around the
shafts.
Removing the batt
Loosen the knob holding the packer brush and twist it up off
the large drum. Turn the drum until the doffer strip is to the
top.
Part the batt with the doffer, taking care the doffer runs in the
groove in the doffer strip.
Pull the batt down over the back beam to remove it cleanly
from the drum.
Maintenance
Apply a drop of oil occasionally to all bearings.
The gap between the teeth may be adjusted to suit your fibre.
The carder comes factory set at our recommended spacing
of 0-1mm. For fine fibres without bulk, you may use a closer
setting or for coarser bulky fibres you may use a slightly wider
setting. To adjust the gap, remove the drive band. Loosen
the 2 bolts and use the nail supplied to rotate the 2 eccentric
bearings. Tighten the 2 bolts and replace the drive band.
Always remove the drive band when not in use to avoid it
stretching.
For more detailed carding instructions, hints and inspiration,
we recommended the Ashford Book of Carding by Jo Reeve.
It has 92 colourful pages covering flick, hand and drum
carding, colour theory and 4 gorgeous projects.
Happy Carding! WDC010518V6
