I have done some searching, reading and watching people making their own blending boards. My question is, should the carding cloth be both glued and stapled to the board, or just stapled? When I examine my hand cards, it appears the cloth is only stapled. But I have run across differing views on whether to glue or not. Does anyone here have a thoughts one way or the other?
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I glued and stapled the card cloth to my board. And it is really firmly on there. Hope this helps.-
Yes, it does help! Thank you so much SpinsterJulieB! I will likely do this in the next couple of days and will report back!
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I said I would report back: the blending board is finished and ready for service. First, I looked at photos of name-brand and DIY blending boards to get an idea of dimensions and features I wanted. I used an old cabinet door of nice quality plywood and a pine bed slat, both rescued from the trash, and cut them to size with a table saw and a scroll saw for the keel. I ordered some 72 tpi carding cloth for about $51 U.S. to the door, from Howard Brush Outlet on Etsy. They strongly recommended that only staples be used to attach the cloth, not glue, to allow the teeth to move. I bought a couple of dollars' worth of hardware and supplies (three 1/4 inch Tee Nuts, one 1/4 inch x 4 inch Eye Bolt, two washers, one utility drawer pull, 3/8 inch staples, 6 feet of screen moulding). We also drilled two clamping holes on the front in case I want to use it flat.
We already had the tools, staples, brads, wood filler, and some colored varnish on hand as a sealer. The keel has three positions in case I want to use it seated, but more likely I will clamp it to the table with my L-shaped loom clamps. I hope that helps anyone else who wants to experiment with some blending techniques without spending a ton.
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Spice2s Oddly, since making the blending board, I realized that I needed a drum carder for what I wanted to do. The plans to use the blending board have not gone away, just gotten buried in the backlog of fibers I have that do not require blending. What I had a lot of was fairly short longwool locks that I wanted to make into a roving. It could be possible to do this with the blending board but I could not find any demos of that particular technique, only ones that started from combed top. I love watching people make delicious shiny rolags with their blending boards - it just isn't what I'm stocked up to do. But it looks so fun - I just need to order a bunch of fibers and try it out (trying to be good and use up stash first, which is hard).
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