necessary keeping it free from ber. In any case, unless you have already carded the ber sev-
eral mes, the stu on the licker-in will be real junk, dirt, second cuts, and other uglies. Don't
be frugal. Pitch it.
Cleaning a drum carder
This job is even more bothersome than cleaning hand carders, because it takes longer and is
more frustrang. Of course, you can leave bits of u embedded in the teeth, especially if you
always process bers of similar color and texture. But I advise against this, especially if you
have been working on protein bers-which aract wool moth larvae and carpet beetles.
These pests can be transferred in turn to everything you run through the machine. You might
as well clean your carder, starng with the licker-in, because it's hard to clean that part with-
out transferring a bunch of stu onto the swi. Remove the junk ba from the licker- in as
you would a regular ba, while doing your best to keep the swi from taking it. Get most of
the trash o, but don't bother to get it all - you will have to clean this part again at least once.
Now clear the swi of clumps or wisps of ber by liing them o with the doer. There prob-
ably will not be enough residue to form a complete layer. Keep pulling the bers out of the
teeth with your free hand , which is not turning the handle. Or you could use the blending
brush, supplied with the carder or available for separate purchase. Now look at the licker-in.
What did I tell you? Ignore it for now, unl the swi is cleaner. The brush works well at this
point for combing through the teeth and liing out stray bits of ber. Always comb with the
grain of the teeth. Go as deeply into them as you can. Pull the bits of ber out of the brush as
you retrieve them, so they don't get redeposited. When the swi is fairly clean, go back to the
licker-in; then repeat your eorts on the swi, and so forth. A drum carder is a bed that never
stays made, but eventually it will be quite clean. If you want the card clothing really clean - for
example, if you are changing colors - there is one more thing to do. Nothing is more frus-
trang than to go from black wool to white and then discover that the rst bas have dark -
bers mixed in. To prevent this, I use my secret weapon. As a standard accessory for your drum
carder, get a strong, s, long-bristled hairbrush. It will pick up the last bers that have resist-
ed your previous eorts: keep brushing up and liing out, working with the grain, and watch
more ber come away from the drum. That should do it. But if you are, indeed, switching col-
ors, check again in good light - it pays to be paranoid.
