The tumbler is a fiber cleaning machine. Why do we need to clean our fiber before it goes to the fiber mill?
Well, before it can get turned into roving or yarn, raw fiber needs to go through types of machinery that are sensitive to debris and dirt. Simply put, Dirty fiber cannot be processed through a fiber mill without causing regular break downs to the machinery. Fiber mills are justly intent on getting the raw fiber cleaned first. So , whether you clean your own fiber or pay somebody else to clean your fiber, it WILL ALWAYS be cleaned.
Clean fiber also makes quality yarns that sell for higher dollars. Control your costs and clean it yourself! End users LOVE clean yarn.
Everyone benefits from cleaner fiber.
Tumbling the fiber is one method of cleaning using the process of tossing the fleece around inside of a wire cage with seperators opening up the fleece and allowing the dirt to get knocked out of the fleece and fall to the ground. Also, during this process , unwanted larger primary fibers, guard hairs, shearing second cuttings, and vegetative matter gets knocked to the ground.
When do you tumble? Usually tumbling occurs after you skirt the fleece. Knowing that you are going to tumble it afterwards will impact how picky you get during skirting. Tumbling will do some of the skirting for you, so it will save you skirting time. Now, there are certain types of fleeces that some processors find more effective tumbling AFTER they skirt ,wash, and dry the fleece. Suri fleece is one of these types of fleeces that some prefer to tumble AFTER washing. The reason being that washing helps open up the locks allowing better tumbling results. Removing the seperators from the tumbler is sometimes done with suri so as not to tangle up a 2-year fleece. Most suri fleeces are 1 year growth and we find the Fleece-O-Matic to be quite effective in cleaning the fleece. See our pictures below. Our tumbler easily accomodates all fleeces.
How does all of this save you money? As stated previously, the fiber mill WILL NOT process dirty fleece, because it simply will add to breakdowns of equipment. The mill is going to charge you a rate per lb./ per process, based on the weight from the incoming dirty/heavier fleece weight. Yep, you guessed it, The postal service also wins with their higher shipping rates based on weight, they gotcha!. If you have dirt and nastys inside the fleece, you are multiplying each process cost by that incoming weight. Save money by cleaning first! Its Safe to say you can figure about 20% cost savings if you send in clean fiber ( this estimate cost figure was given to me from a fiber mill processor). You will also get your fleece processed much faster, and become a Mill favorite customer when it arrives clean!. Also, it is easier to get repeating roving and yarn buyers from your website when you have the top quality products they can rely on.
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