Our Machinery

By: Nundle Woollen Mill

Steps in Processing our Wool

Prior to arriving at Nundle Woollen Mill, the fleece is shorn, sorted and classed in the shearing shed, and conveyed by semi trailer to the major wool buying centres in Brisbane, Newcastle, Sydney, Melbourne and Geelong.

 

Following sale by auction, the wool is scoured or washed to remove dirt and grease, and sold either locally or for export.

 

Here at Nundle, we use 23 to 28 micron Polwarth and Merino lambs' wool with very little vegetable matter. Fine 23um wools for apparel garments and the stronger, coarser 28um wools for rug wools. Wool is also blended with mohair, angora, alpaca and hemp.

 

Machine No 1 – The Opener

The Opener or Picker was built by Tomlinsons of Rochdale, England in 1916 and was purchased from Australian Textile Recyclers, in Victoria. Built to last, the machine was sometimes used asa rag shredder.

 

The Opener is now being restored to good running condition, and its primary role at Nundle is to “open and mix” the scoured wool in preparation for carding.

 

After opening, processing oil and water is added to the wool to reduce fibre breakage and minimize static during carding.

Machine No 2 – The Carding Machine

Built by the Platt Co. in 1914 at Oldham England the Card was purchased in 1989 from J L McGregor Pty Ltd of Geelong.

In woollen processing the yarn is made in the card. The fibres are opened in the feed hopper, measured in the weigh pan and dumped onto the feed sheet ready for carding.

 

The carding process mixes and opens the mass of wool to individual fibres. The fibres are assembled into a web at the doffer at the end of the scribber (first) section. The large metal rollers in the Parelta section are used to crush any vegetable such as burrs in the fibre web.

 

The web is formed into a sliver to be transferred and turned across the card feed sheet via the Scotch feed connecting the scribber and carding sections together.

 

The carding section further mixes and opens the fibres using the finer wires of the worker and stripper rollers. The fibres are stripped off the carding section using the doffer roller and comb to produce a fine fibre web of constant weight and evenness.

 

This web is split into 100 narrow strips by the tapes in the condenser section before being rubbed with a false twist into slubbings and wound into cheeses on one of the four levels of card spools.

Machine No 3 – The Whitin Spinning Frame

The Whitin Spinning Frame was manufactured in the United States in the early 1950’s.

 

The function of this machine is to draft and twist each of the slubbings on the spool into single threads. The drafting draws out the fibres to the thickness required and the twist adds strength to the yarn. This machine, also from McGregor’s, has been reconditioned and shortened to match the four spool output of the Card.

Machine No 4 – The Platt Spinning Frame

Manufactured in England, this Spinning Frame will be commissioned at a later date.

 

Though shorter in frame length, the machine is capable of higher speeds and productivity than the Whitin and will be used as an additional Spinner or converted to a Twister.

Machine No 5 – The Dandy Rover

Built in 1938 by Prince, Smith and Stells in England, this machine has been converted to a Twister to suit our mill’s woollen spinning system.

 

The Dandy is now used for twisting (or “plying”) 3 or more threads (or “ends”) together to make the 8 and12 ply knitting yarns for the local Nundle knitters.

 

A special and unique feature of this machine is its ability to produce our special bulky rug and 20 ply yarns.

Machine No 6 – The Hank Reeling Machine

Manufactured in Germany by Croon & Lucke the “Hanker” winds yarn from cone or bobbins to a hank or skein ready for sale, or for dyeing into many colours in our Dye House on the other side of the building.

Machine No 7 - The Dye House

Yarn is dyed in hank form on rotating rollers in the dye bath using fibre reactive wool dyes. It takes about one hour to apply the dye under acid conditions for the lighter colours and a maximum of two hour for the darker shades. To finish the dyeing the excess dye stuff not exhausted is washed off and the wool is neutralised before spin drying.

 

The coloured yarn is then dried for a day in the sun outside on the drying racks.

 

It is necessary to half turn the hanks in the middle of the day to ensure even drying.

 

A check for wet and dry dye fastness is made before the hanks are wound onto cones.

Machine No 8 – The Cone Winder

The Leesona Cone Winding machine is used to wind yarn from spinning and twisting bobbins, onto cardboard cones ready for placing on the creel of the Hanking machine.

 

The Mill also has a single and three head Cone Winder to wind dyed yarn hanks onto cones ready for balling. Machine knitters can use this coned yarn directly on their machines.

Machine No 9 – The Ball Winding Machine

Manufactured by Croon & Lucke this machine winds balls to a predetermined shape and size.

 

The main use at Nundle is for winding 8 ply yarns from cone to a 50gm ball ready for sale to hand knitters.

 

The finished balls are labelled by hand at this stage.

Local Knitting

The woollen yarn produced in the Nundle Mill is suited to the production of bulky knit garments such as sweaters, hats, beanies, scarves and gloves. There are twenty-eight local knitters who knit for the Mill Shop under the direction of local Nundle fashion designers.

The Future

This is an exciting time. Our aim is to:

 

Produce the basic yarns in the current session fashion colours as 8, 12 and 20 ply yarns for local knitters and mail order.

 

Develop special yarns in different fibre blends that combine wool with such fibres as mohair, cashmere, alpaca, cotton, linen, angora rabbit and wool.

 

Develop effect yarns with unique textures and colour combinations not available from any other yarn suppliers in Australia or the world.

Commission the weaving machines and the laboratory processing equipment for product development in woollen weaving such as blankets and speciality garments.

 

Train local people in the textile and tourist industries.