DIY Fiber Tumbler!!! How we solved our dirty fiber dilemma...

Our newest creation is a manual fiber tumbler! We cleaned over 20lbs of alpaca with a free warping wheel that was taking up space in our friends garage by simply wrapping it with .5“ square mesh found at any feed store. In the future, we may attach a couple of short dowel pieces (slightly sharpened?) to the interior wood cross supports pointing toward the center to break up the fiber better as it moves through. This may also help to eliminate some of the light felting which is worse in alpaca than sheep wool. A better door can be made with hinges/hooks/clips, but it was a ’quick fix’ creation. Quite a bit of VM (Vegetable Matter) drops through, but even more dust and dirt is blown out by our shop vac top that can be used as a blower. (a leaf blower is another option). You can easily recreate this for your own fiber cleaning and even attach to a motor to make it hands free. A great way to get the children involved in the fiber work, they love it! ENJOY!