Fiber arts toolmaker Maurice Ribble is crowdfunding a $99 kit that turns your own 3D printed parts into an electric spinning wheel for yarn.
It is called the EEW Maker Kit, the newest in his Electric Eel Wheel (EEW) line of motorized spinners. Ribble has designed and built those machines for more than 15 years through Dreaming Robots, his small company in Lancaster, Massachusetts.
The box holds everything a printer can’t make. You get a fully assembled circuit board and a custom-wound brushless motor, plus a machined stainless steel spindle and ceramic yarn guides. Bearings for five bobbins and every screw are in there too. The chassis comes off your own printer, in whatever colors you like.
Nothing needs soldering or coding. The hardware plugs, snaps and screws into the printed frame. Ribble ran the build past more beta testers from his Discord community than on any earlier project.
Bobbins hold 8 ounces, and the flyer spins at 200 to 1,600 revolutions per minute (RPM). Ribble calls the new controller his most advanced yet. It keeps the speed steady from fine lace to bulky art yarn, and a tangle detection feature stops the flyer when the yarn snags.
A 12 volt power supply isn’t included, to keep the base price down. North American backers can add a wall adapter for $12. For spinning away from an outlet, there is a free printable holder for a TalentCell battery pack good for more than 8 hours.
Openness is the real pitch. Ribble publishes standard STL files on Printables along with the original Autodesk Fusion design files. “Because the 3D files are completely open-source, this machine evolves with you,” he writes on the campaign page.
Beta tester Craftmehappy has already shown what that means, with a jumbo 16 ounce bobbin that doubles the normal capacity.
Owning a printer is optional. Six small print shops across the US, the UK, the European Union, Australia and New Zealand form an Authorized Printer Network. Each got a hand-built prototype kit to test-fit its prints. Ribble advises waiting to order printed parts until kits are close to shipping, since the files may still change.
The standard kit is due in August 2027. An Early Access tier at $139, capped at 40 backers and flown in by air freight, sold out with June 2027 delivery. Within two days the campaign had nearly tripled its $20,000 goal with 467 backers. It runs until December 2.
None of the kits exist yet. Pledges pay for motors, circuit boards and spindles ordered in batches of thousands. Ribble has fulfilled nine earlier Kickstarter campaigns, including the EEW 6.0, EEW Nano and EEW Fold.
Source: Kickstarter
