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This post was last edited/updated in March 2021.

Update 2021: After a few years of experience with my carder (4 years since I wrote this based on the first paragraph), I didn’t find anything I needed to correct or edit in here. Unfortunately, last I checked, Howard Brush is still listing the drum carder I have as out of stock, though their other products I use are still available - since it hasn’t been removed from the site, hopefully they’ll be making and listing them again soon. I don’t recommend any one carder over the other, but leave that up to you to decide. My personal approach to tools is “will it work?” “will it hold up?” “how much does it cost?” “if something breaks, can I fix it myself or find someone who can?” - I’m a big supporter of the right-to-repair movement and fix a lot of my own things at home. Sometimes I do think it’s worth spending more to make sure you get something durable and repairable - other times it’s not that necessary. Brands aren’t anything I’ve ever prioritized, but I know some people do (and that’s totally fine). On a personal level, I am pretty frugal in nature and DIY as much as possible, so that is generally my approach to things. A few people have reached out to me as a result of this blog post because they’re building a drum carder from scratch and needed to answers to some questions in the process. More power to them!!! If that’s something you’re interested in doing, I’ve included links to where you can find carding cloth and blueprints other people have put together. I have also made a note to myself that once I’m done updating all the existing things on my site, I’m going to come back and create more hand-drawn graphics for my guides like the one I did for my felting needles page (which also will get an updated graphic).

I’ve also added links to other popular drum carder models, including name-brand ones, but tried to describe them here so you’re not having to do all the research yourself. I opted to take out pricing (anywhere I used to mention pricing on this website) as I do not update the posts frequently enough to keep up with price fluctuations. I would also love to include any small-business handmade carders if anyone’s selling them, so if you know of any that I couldn’t find, feel free to send me the link so I can add it.

At the time of initial writing of this post, I am still very new to operating a drum carder, though I had done quite a bit of extensive research in order to know what I personally wanted to get for needs. Your needs (and budget) will possibly differ from mine, so I wanted to be sure to include everything I’d learned from scouring the web in this post to help you make a well-informed decision. I also documented my first steps in setting up and using my new drum carder.

Here's all I learned about drum carders from my research

• There are double-drum and triple-drum carders (mine is a triple).

• The smaller drum(s) is called a licker, and that typically has a coarser cloth on it than the main drum called the swift. I have seen drum carders where the cloth on both the licker and swift are the same TPI. From what I read, both of the smaller drums on a triple-drum carder are called lickers.

• The TPI number, or teeth per inch, tells you how coarse it is, with a lower number being coarser than a higher number. The ones I've seen come in a range from 54 TPI for extra coarse (great for highly textured batts), 72 TPI (medium or standard, great in-between cloth), 90 TPI, 120 TPI, and even 190 TPI. The teeth on coarser cloths are a bit thicker/stiffer, so you don't have to worry about them bending/needing to replace the cloth as often.

• Some drum carders allow you to adjust the spacing between the licker and the swift. You will want more spacing, about 1/4" for a coarser cloth, such as 72 or lower.

• You can make smooth batts/roving on coarser cloths, but you can't do textured batts on finer cloths. A coarser cloth just means you have to do extra passes on it to get it smooth.

• Finer cloths can cause more breakage with wool, one of the many possible causes behind nepps (others being things like including second cuts in the fiber, tender tips, careless carding, or leaving too much lanolin on the wool).

• Fine cloths are used for carding plant/man-made fibers and very fine animal fibers. Unless the only fibers you plan on carding are merinos, silks or plant fibers (such as cotton), stick to the coarser cloth.

• Let's just say if you're a felter, you want the coarsest cloth you can get.

• You can get belt-driven and chain-driven drum carders. The vast majority of drum carders on the market are belt-driven (the belts can be replaced), and chain-driven ones tend to be more expensive, however with chains you don't have to worry about the belt slipping. Chain would probably make sense for anyone who plans on processing a lot of wool and/or selling commercially, but my opinion is that it's overkill for a hobbyist. So far I haven't had any issues with the belt slipping, and my guess is if yours starts to slip, it probably means it's time for a new belt.

• As with blending boards, you can either choose to leave it in a "batt" form or you can diz-off into roving. You can get what are called "roving" carders which are about half the width of a regular drum carder, but that just seems like extra work to me just for that purpose alone. Get a roving carder if you don't want to card large amounts of wool or if you're short on space to store it. Carders take about the same amount of space as a slow-cooker (for comparison), just remember to check the dimensions of the one you wish to get.

• You will see some sites list a ratio with their drums. That is how many times the swift turns before the licker makes a complete revolution. Most of the time I see 5:1 or 4:1. That means you turn the crank 5 times (or 4) before the little drum turns all the way around.

• Some carders come with a packing brush attachment. If this is the only thing that has you stuck deciding between one or another carder, I provide another solution further down in the post (mine does not come with a packing brush).

Drum carders are an investment, no matter which one you get. I’ve seem them range from $300 for the cheapest, budget models (depending on how minimal you go with the accessories) to around $4k for a Pat Green Super Carder (which is the Rolex of home carders).

Building Your Own Carder:

Depending on the degree to which you want to get involved in the building process, you can get just the carding cloth to make everything from scratch to getting pre-built parts and building your own frame to go with them.

Unless you’re coming up with your own design, you’ll also need some plans. Here are a few I found:

If you’re extra handy and mechanically inclined, why not take it to the next level? Check out the Cyclocarder below.

Budget Carders & Where To Buy Used?

Here are a few sites for budget-friendly drum carders. If you’re on a tight budget, you can also check the All Fiber Equipment For Sale group on Facebook (though many will prefer to resell locally, because shipping is a challenge), or look on Etsy or Ebay to see if you can get a used one. The one I got is the Howard Brush carder.

• Howard Brush triple-drum carder American-made carder with American-made cloth that comes unfinished - I ended up painting mine to make it pretty, but you can leave it bare or finish it yourself. This carder has been out of stock most of 2020, and is still out of stock as of March 2021 - it’s still on their website, though it’s been removed from Woolery’s site. Hopefully they bring them back. Maybe they’re redesigning them? One can hope!

• Kitten Drum Carder small family-owned business, these are built by hand - they do have other carders available but the Kitten is their cheapest one

• Brother Drum Carder. This one seems to be an extremely popular budget-friendly starter-carder, as I've seen people re-sell these on the Facebook fiber de-stash pages when they upgrade. Huge benefit is that you can get one for lefties or righties. From what I’ve seen, all other drum carders are right-hand crank. Note that you do need to buy the accessory that comes with doffer and brushes separately, which does bring the price up a bit - so make sure you factor that in when comparing prices.

Buying Carders on Etsy & International Shoppers

Name Brand Carders other than Brother

Other than purchasing directly from a dealer (which some carders you may still have to go through a dealer), you can find Ashford carders on Amazon, and a wider range of drum carders available on Woolery:

What I've learned while using a drum carder

Priming or Cleaning The Carder

First things first: when you get your brand new drum carder - not an issue if you bought one used - you want to use a dark wool to prime it or break it in (some say clean it but I think priming makes more sense). Definitely clean it if it’s used, because wool moth and carpet beetle eggs are so tiny, and they can get into any batts that you card on it. I wouldn’t take any chances. There may be some residual oils and metal dust on it which I assume might stain lighter wool. What you definitely don't want to do is make your first art batt right out of the box. Or, if you do, just make it a dark or grey one. From what I read, any residue from the carder doesn't make the wool unusable, so don't worry about having to toss it afterward.

how to card your fiber

Feed it small amounts of fiber, and use a flicker to open up the ends of any locks before feeding it in. Take your time building up the wool on the carder. You do not have to feed it through the licker either. You can lay the wool directly onto the swift, and you definitely want to go that route when incorporating locks into a textured batt. Hold the wool gently in one hand as you slowly turn the drum, allowing it to catch some of the teeth. When feeding it through the chute, do not pull the fiber! All that does is get the wool on the licker and not transferred onto the drum. The licker's job is to push the wool towards the drum which picks it up. Personal update: if you are processing raw fiber (meaning it looks like locks) and want to get to a smoother batt faster than several rounds on the drum carder, you can pre-card them on hand carders. I personally really enjoy hand carding, and I can card out a good bit of fiber I’d processed while watching something on TV or Youtube, and then take the hand-carded fiber to the carder to make a fancy batt. Check out my post on hand carders here.

Don't overfeed your carder. You can cause it to jam up, and you may have to back it up to pull the other fiber out. I learned this the hard way, because after I finished pulling my bat off the drum (this process is known as doffing), I turned it again and apparently there was all this wool that had gotten stuck under one of the lickers. Oops. It didn't get jammed up though.

Packing your fiber for a bigger batt

The drum carder you select may come with a packing brush - a wide, stiff-bristle brush that helps you pack the wool on. If it does not (mine doesn’t), if you have a blending board/blending brush, you can use your blending brush to help push the fibers down on the carder after it's been carded a bit so you can add more wool. Before I used one, I was limited in how much I could add to the carder before it started getting backed up. I am pretty sure it's the same as a burnishing brush which you can purchase for your carder separately.

Removing Your Batt From the carder

You can use a doffing mesh. This is a fine netting that fits over the teeth and on the cloth, which makes doffing the fiber off supposedly easier. I have not tried this method personally, because it really seems like it might end up being extra work anyway between getting the mesh all the way on the cloth and then pulling it off. Apparently the netting that comes on ham is the best for this.

To doff off (and diz off if you're making roving), you use your doffing stick at the seam on your carding cloth - typically a wooden band that sits somewhere on the drum. You run your doffing stick under the wool and pull it up off the carder, then pull it down going with the grain of the teeth (turning the drum backwards) as you slowly tug the fiber off. It should come off in one sheet for the most part, though there will be remnants that get stuck. This is when you grab your handy porcupine quill and pull the fiber up off the carding cloth and rejoin it with the batt. I do this as I go along, slowly pulling it up and using the quill to assist where needed. If your carder didn’t come with a doffing pick, some sell them separately, but you can also use a metal knitting needle to get it started.

For a smoother batt, card it more than once

If you're going to run your batt through the carder again, don't feed the whole sheet in at once. Split it up into thin sheets, being careful to keep the fibers all going in the same direction (after all you don't want to undo the carding you just did) and slowly feed it back through the chute/licker. There was a fine dust from particles in the wool on the pull-out board, so I like to clean/wipe it off between re-carding so it doesn't go back in with the wool.

Cleaning your carder

The wool that gets stuck on the lickers aren't the good pieces from the wool This is where the second cuts, short fibers, nepps, etc. get stuck. Don't ask me how the carder knows which parts are the good stuff and which is not so good. That being said, if you're planning on spinning the fiber, this stuff gets chucked. If you're needle felting (like I am), these "crap" pieces are still useful, but you may choose to use it as a texture in your piece or just mix it in with the core wool where it still serves its purpose but doesn't affect the look of your art.

You do want to keep your carders clean. By leaving fluff sitting around, you can attract wool moth larvae, which look like fuzzy grains of rice. The last thing you want is for your next batt to pick up these larvae and incorporate them into your work where they can eat your 3D wooly from the inside-out. There are better ways to make hollow objects.

To sum up: how I use my drum carder:

1. For the first carding, I like to “paint” the wool directly on the swift while turning the handle. This way I have better control over where the wool goes and makes it a lot easier to ensure even coverage, and not having to worry about it getting backed up between the licker and swift. It's a bit harder making sure you don't have gaps using the chute - but most videos I’ve watched, people just put them directly through the feeder. This is a matter of personal preference.

2. I turn the crank a few times to make sure it's all nicely carded, then I hold the blending brush in one hand as I continue cranking the handle. I can slowly move the brush across to pack my fiber down. If you have a packing brush built into your carder, this step isn’t necessary.

3. After using the blending brush, I add another thin layer of wool. Think about how you use a blending board (burnishing between each color/layer), you're doing the same thing here.

4. Continue adding, carding and burnishing until your batt is as thick as you want it to be (or at the maximum capacity that your carder can hold).

5. Doff the wool off the swift (going backwards), using your porcupine quill as you go to make sure it's all off the drum and in your hand.

6. Crank the handle forward a few times to make sure nothing's stuck where you can't see it (then repeat the process with a doffer/dog brush to get the rest off).

7. If you're going to card it again, pull apart from the ends (not the sides) to keep the fibers in line, thin it out, and feed it back through the chute. Don’t do thick layers.

8. Once you're done, clean off the licker(s) and swift with a pet brush or cleaning/doffing brush, going with the grain while turning the drum, stopping to use your quill and needle nose tweezers to get the really stubborn bits. I find that if I turn the drum while cleaning it with my brush, it also picks up some of the fiber from the lickers. The swift is easier to clean because it's more accessible.

9. When you’re done carding, it’s good practice to unclamp the carder, and hit the drums, chute, and space under the carder with a vacuum with a brush attachment.

Happy Felting (and carding)!