Get the safety gear out folks!
I made this video on how I make divider pins from broken bobbins and fancy little bits of wood turning.
The Archimedes screw drill I use has been very handy for playing about with this sort of thing. I also use it if the hole for a spangle isn't big enough for the way I spangle my bobbins (I thread twice through the hole then twist at each side, some people just thread one wire through).
I do like a fine needle for my dividers, so I found most are happy with a 0.7mm drill bit. If this does end up being a bit loose, I thread the needle, touch lightly with a bit of Superglue and then fit that in. The two lengths of thread can be sliced off when the glue is set.
The 'proddlers' as I call them, also known as stillettos, take a much wider needle, sometimes you can find very thick pins about 2mm wide which do a good job. The narrow pins are made differently to needles, they tend to bend and break rather than flex so a needle is always a better choice.
Needles which have the eye as narrow as the shaft are best to use, the ones with the wide eyes can split the wood when forced in, and the sharp end tends to have a bit of a wiggle if you drill large enough hole to fit the wide eye.
Bone is really hard to drill, I haven't managed to drill one successfully yet. I am not allowed to play with power tools, so broken bone bobbins are not something I can manage to make dividers out of.
When I am putting the needle into the hole, you can see in the video I place it upright on the table, simply because I'm used to doing it that way. The block of ethafoam does have some bobbin size holes for shoving the bobbin bit into to hold it upright if you find that easier.
The little nylon hammer I use is a lightweight even by little hammer standards, I tease, rather than hit the end of the pliers to help knock the needle deeper into the bobbin, this is not where you want to split the wood so you are feeling for the needle to hit the end of the hole.
The sandpaper I use to smooth the sawn off end is a 400 grit, you could use an emery board if you have one handy. Sometimes the sawn end is a different colour wood to the rest because polish or accumulated handling will have deepened the colour of the grain. To tone down the newly exposed bit, use some beeswax, a bit of oil or, in one experiment I tried, a bit of moisturiser!
Remember when the video goes in and out of focus, frustrating I know, it is hard for a mobile phone camera to maintain focus on small things, it keeps trying to focus on the larger areas.
I am not excited by the thought of spending my life tweaking videos, tied to a computer screen instead of making lace and enjoying life, so I make the videos in one take, usually the first one gets enough information across for me to upload that one. If it helps you in some small way, then that's enough for me.
Link to the video here:-
