Skein winder mods

Ok to start with, I'm feeling rather smug about my new mods. I'm sure others have done it before, but I unvented this from my own ideas so I'm rather chuffed about it. I've been needing a way to measure the length of my yarn as I wind it. And looking about at yarn measuring products they seem to be either a fishing line meter, or a distance measuring wheel, repackaged and repriced for the knitting market. From what I saw with the line meter, it can get jammed up with the lint that comes off wool, it also won't measure anything too fine, nor too thick. The wheel based ones look like they might be more accurate, however I still feel there is potential for slippage.

So the thinking cap, or should I say caps as my hubby was helping to think, went on. I came up with the idea of using a laser, like in the way a shop door alert works as a customer passes through and breaks the beam. However we don't want it to blip when the beam was broken, we wanted something that could measure when the beam was completed. And looking at lasery things it all looked a little expensive. Second though was if not lasers, why not magnets? something that could cause enough pull to click a lever as it passed by, so i'd be able to count how many times my skein winder had gone around, multiply it by the circumference of my winder and then figure out the distance. We were getting closer to a solution!

I didn't want anything that needed physical contact, the bearings on my winder are a little wibbly and I couldn't be certain it would pass by in exactly the same position each time. And then it hit me, my sons bike odometer! it works by magnet, as the magnet that is placed on the wheel passes by the sensor, the computer then translates this information into speed and distance, based on the size of wheel you have put in at the set up. so not only can I tell what length of yarn I am winding, but how fast! extra bonus.

I searched around and found a relatively cheap one online, you can pick one up for just a few dollars if you do a bit of looking, be sure to get one that allows you to specify the wheel size though. I experimented with various mounting points before settling on having the sensor and magnet fairly close to the center, this gives less leeway for movement and less chance of the arms swiping the sensor as they pass by. I had to drill a wee hold for the magnet mount to anchor into, I'll make this more permanent with glue once I am happy this is the best set up. The readout screen I secured to the base, it was just the easiest place to mount it with the ties that were included, and it's easy enough to read down there. I did need to secure teh wire to the upright at the place where the knobs pass, because they caught up the wire and I nearly had a major malfunction. So, I give you the yarn measurey skein winder thingy! I'll be testing it out over the next week as I have alot of skeins to wind.