Daedalus Roly-Poly User manual

Roly-Poly
Daedalus
Spinning Wheels

Welcome to the Flock!
Congratulaons on purchasing the Daedalus Roly-Poly, and welcome
to the Flock. We at Daedalus couldn’t be more thrilled that you
decided to trust us with your ber tool purchase. The Roly-Poly was
designed to wind yarn balls eortlessly with the ip of a switch and
the turn of a knob, but with a twist: it winds a nostepinne-style ball,
not a standard cake. Roly-Poly can wind ne and wide gauge yarns,
as well as large and small skeins. Whatever your needs, Daedalus
has you covered. The Roly-Poly also pairs well with the Whirligig
electric skeiner/swi. Should you need any assistance in the future
with your wheel, please do not hesitate to contact us
at [email protected].
• 40 mm Core (22 mm
Core is underneath)
• Core Base
• Tie-O Bolts
• Rear Motor
• Speed Dial
• Power Socket

1
• Guides
• Flyer
• Drive Belt
• Front Bearing
• Front Orice
• Rear Orice
• Tension Hooks
• Front Motor
• Face
• Serial Plate

Before operang, we highly recommend reading over the manual as
well as watching our videos on how to use the Roly-Poly. Simply scan
this QR code with your mobile device’s camera or go to
hps://www.youtube.com/@daedalusspinningwheels.
Roly-Poly comes fully assembled and ready to start balling your yarn.
Unpack and plug it into the power brick, and remember to add the
toggle power switch. Using the threader hook tool, route your yarn
from your swi. Thread it into the front orice, out the rear orice,
and then through the two guide rings (one along the yer arm and
the last one at the end of the yer arm). Anchor the end of the yarn at
one of the silver screws around the cone-shaped Core Base (there are
two with recesses for thicker yarns and two without, for ner yarns).
Getting started

3
Make sure the speed knob is turned all the way down
(counterclockwise). Turn the toggle switch on and the core will begin
to spin slowly. Now you can start turning up the speed knob just a bit,
which allows the yer to begin slowly wrapping the yarn around the
core. You might want to add a lile “hand tension” by gently pinching
the yarn going into the front orice. Although it’s not technically
necessary, this gives a rmer start to the ball.
Aer about an ounce or so, maybe golf ball sized, you can release
the hand tension and begin increasing the speed knob. How fast you
operate is up to you. You can quickly get to full speed if you like and
nish a 4-ounce skein of ngering yarn in under 4 minutes. You can
take the slower method and increase the speed knob when you start
seeing gaps in between the adjacent wraps, trying to maintain the
perfectly side-by-side wrapping. This process can take 8-10 minutes
for that same 4-ounce skein of yarn.
Decrease Speed Increase Speed

4

5
• The 40mm core will be used in most cases.
• The 22mm core is great for laceweight or ner yarns as well as for
a skein of 50 grams or less.
• Tension hooks are best used for ner or slick yarns.
• Experiment with locaons for seng up your Roly-Poly and Swi
of choice. We typically keep the Roly-Poly and Whirligig on the
same surface about 2-5 feet apart. Placing them further apart can
allow twist to be evenly dispursed throughout the yarn.
• Ball width can go up to 8.5“ wide and yarn can be as thick as what
can t through and move freely through the orice and guides.
• Watching the Roly-Poly wind is mesmerizing, but your primary
focus needs to be on the swi to catch snags, especially if your
skein looks like it may have issues.
• If you have a skein snag on your swi, turn o the switch on the
Roly-Poly and turn the speed dial to zero. Then take one wrap o
the core to create some slack in the yarn and clear the snag on the
swi. Before you start the Roly-Poly again, make sure the speed is
dialed down so you’re not restarng at full speed. You can speed
up the yer once the swi is moving freely again.
• For an umbrella swi, make sure the umbrella is not ght against
the top of the post, creang fricon. You want the swi to move
freely.
• Special note for Schacht Ultra Swi users: we recommend using
the swi in its upright posion, for maximum success. When
horizontal, the winding handle causes the swi to be unbalanced
(heavy on one side) and not turn evenly. This is ne when using
the handle to wind a skein onto the swi, but when using it as
a yarn source, it causes uctuaons between very slack and
moderate tension with every revoluon.
Tips & Tricks

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Tension (how ght the yarn is when being pulled into Roly-Poly) will
aect the density of your ball. The speed you operate will inuence
tension, because at higher speeds, any given swi will have more
drag. But a good, low-fricon swi will sll produce acceptably
dense balls at higher speeds. However, if your swi isn’t as smooth
or squeaks and/or “barks” at mid speeds, then you might consider
keeping the speed knob in the lower ranges if you require a lower ball
density.
In the case of needing a ghter ball with higher density and simply
running faster speeds isn’t desired, you have the opon of using the
internal tension hooks built into the yer. You can route your yarn
around these two hooks before running back through the two steel
guide rings. This detour in the yarn path will add more tension to the
yarn going onto the ball. In tesng, this feature would only be used
when balling ne silk blends at lower speeds. (Silk blends have less
drag overall and therefore less tension.)
All About Tension

7
Geng started, stay with slower speeds and feel free to keep the yarn
going lightly through your hand. This way you are adding a lile bit
of “hand tension” and monitoring the apparent density of the ball.
This is a good way to become familiar with the range of tension and
ball densies unl you get the results you want. At any point you can
simply turn up the speed a bit, and the extra drag from the added
speed will allow you to let go of the yarn. You’ll sll have the same
tension, but you can sit back and relax.
Once you’re comfortable and nd yourself zipping along at warp
speed, just be careful about the skein snagging up on your swi. Keep
your hand on or near the toggle switch so you can quickly power o in
case of a snag. Be sure to turn the speed knob all the way o, so you
can resume slowly aer clearing your snag.
Getting to Know Your Roly-Poly

When the ball is nished and you’ve turned it o, the rst thing to do
is to remove the yarn from the silver anchor screw. You can then slide
the ball o of the carbon ber core, or you can pull the 40mm core o
with the ball, remove the ball and replace the core.
Your ball will be open on the inside at this point, which you can leave
as is, or you can squeeze the ball (horizontally and vercally) to
“collapse” the open center.
Either way, you’ll be able to easily center-pull the yarn. If you have
the yarn info tag, you can place it into the center of the ball before
collapsing (with both ends of the yarn taped to it, for maximum
organizaonal pleasure).
Finishing