Yes, you read that right– not benchy, but beanie, as in the hat. A toque, for those of us under the Maple Leaf. It’s not 3D printed, either, except perhaps by the loosest definition of the word: it is knit, by [Kevr102]’s motorized turbo knitter.
The turbo-knitter started life as an Addi Express King knitting machine. These circular knitting machines are typically crank-operated, functioning with a cam that turns around to raise and lower special hooked needles that grab and knit the yarn. This particular example was not in good working order when [Kevr102] got a hold of it. Rather than a simple repair, they opted to improve on it.
A 12 volt motor with a printed gear and mount served for motorizing the machine. The original stitch counter proved a problem, so was replaced with an Arduino Nano and a hall effect sensor driving a 7-digit display. In theory, the Arduino could be interfaced with the motor controller and set to run the motor for a specific number of stitches, but in practice there’s no point as the machine needs babysat to maintain tension and avoid dropping stitches and the like. Especially, we imagine, when it runs fast enough to crank out a hat in under six minutes. Watch it go in the oddly cropped demo video embedded below.
Five minutes would still be a very respectable time for benchy, but it’s not going to get you on the SpeedBoatRace leaderboards against something like the minuteman we covered earlier.
If you prefer to take your time, this knitting machine clock might be more your fancy. We don’t see as many fiber arts hacks as perhaps we should here, so if you’re tangled up in anything interesting in that scene, please drop us a line.
Never expected that knitting items to keep you warm could be so cool. Fun project!
I really wonder how the machine sounds.
Glad you warmed up to the idea
Hats off to the builder for not pulling the wool over our eyes
This turbo-knitter is wild! Love seeing fiber arts meet DIY engineering like this. Under six minutes for a beanie is seriously impressive — would love to see more hacks like this in the yarn world!
It’s a nice looking beanie but I think that the infill needs to be a bit higher if you wish to actually use it to keep you warm. This looks to be a 20% infill, probably best to go to 50%.
Part of the crank knob broke on my Wife’s Addi. She makes beanies to donate. So along with ordering the parts to fix it, I’m also ordering an adapter to allow an electric screwdriver to turn the crank. Not to much of a hack, but that’s about all I could get away with on her Addi.
Fun, but aren’t basically all store-bought watchcaps made by the industrial equivalent?
I’m wondering if it’s possible to add two more knitting stations around the circumference each with their own yarn feed. That could allow an under 2 minute beanie to be knitted.
This created a yarn tube, not a beanie.
What is the preferred method to gather/finish the closed end?
How do you finish the open end so that it doesn’t simply unravel?
I would knot do anything to the top.
Thread a darning needle with a saved length of the yarn and thread it through the open stitches before the work is removed from the machine. Both ends of the work gathered the same way then beanie is folded in half, so it is twice the thickness. Check Youtube for Addi hat instructions.
There’s knot solution to either problem.
Until the speed melts the plastic gears. This has happened to many others who have tried various methods of adding motors to these machines.
That’s why serious over-speeders use dry-ice cooling :-)
liquid cooled knitting technology, an excellent idea