YOU CAN BUILD THE MACHINE THAT SPINS THREAD FROM SCRATCH
The smallest commercial lab system for spinning viscose or acrylic fibre costs 200,000 pounds and needs five metres of bench; this modular version costs about 600 pounds and runs from a single socket.
by Joseph A. Houghton and Richard S. Blackburn
ScienceOpen-hardware
- difficulty
- ●●●●●
- time
- several weekends
- license
- CC BY 4.0
- repo
- repo FINISHED0 stars
●●●●● · several weekends · CC BY 4.0 · 0 stars · repo FINISHED
WHAT YOU’LL NEED
Partner
COMPAREE VERDICT
This is a complete open-source wet spinning line: the machine that turns dissolved polymer into textile fibre the way viscose, acrylic and elastane are made industrially. Joseph Houghton and Richard Blackburn at the University of Leeds published it in HardwareX in June 2026 after running it to produce coloured fibre spools. The system is modular — interchangeable coagulation baths, driven rollers, a heated drying stage and a take-up winder, each controlled by its own Arduino or ESP32 board so every speed is independent. The 65-file dataset contains every printed part in STL and STEP, the bill of materials, all firmware and three PCB packages. Everything is CC BY 4.0. The paper compares it to the Fibre Extrusion Technology commercial lab system, which costs 200,000 pounds before customisation and fills a five by two metre bench; the open version costs 500 to 700 pounds in materials, fits under a square metre and runs from one mains socket. The single biggest catch is honest: the pump is not part of that cost, and syringe pumps start around 1,000 pounds. The paper points to other HardwareX-published pump designs as alternatives. The second catch is that you need a fume hood for solvent handling, which means this is for a university or well-equipped workshop, not a kitchen bench. If you can meet those two requirements, you are building the only open-source wet spinning rig in the world.
IN THE REPO
NOT IN THE REPO
- —65 files on Mendeley Data under CC BY 4.0: 29 STL, 29 STEP, BOM spreadsheet, 3 Arduino sketches, 3 PCB packages.
- —Commercial use is allowed by the CC BY 4.0 licence.
- —The pump is NOT included and syringe pumps start around 1,000 pounds; HardwareX has published buildable pump designs separately.
- —No assembly instructions in the dataset; the HardwareX paper describes the system but not step-by-step build order.
- —Solvent handling requires a fume hood, stated by the authors.
- —You are building a working wet spinning line that produces continuous textile fibre from dissolved polymer; the dataset gives you the mechanical stages and control boards to do it.
Can I build this?
Build at your own risk. Projects involve tools, electronics and sometimes mains voltage — follow the creator’s safety notes.
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Start here
Navigation into the creator’s own docs — we don’t rewrite the guide, we route you to the source.
- 1.Read the HardwareX paper (Describes the wet spinning process, the commercial reference point, and the modular design decisions.)
- 2.Download the 65-file dataset from Mendeley Data(DOI 10.17632/776w7sj2f2.1 — contains all STL/STEP parts, BOM spreadsheet, Arduino sketches and PCB Gerbers.)
- 3.Source or build a syringe pump(Not included in the project; commercial pumps start around 1,000 pounds, or check HardwareX for published open pump designs.)
- 4.Print the bath, roller and drying modules(29 STL files; start with one bath size and its matching roller set to test fitment.)
- 5.Order PCBs and electronics per the BOM(Three custom PCBs (Gerbers provided), Arduino Nano, ESP32, stepper and DC motors, encoders, OLEDs, potentiometers.)
KNOWN ISSUES
- The pump is NOT part of the 500-700 pound build cost — syringe pumps start around 1,000 pounds, and that is before any polymer or solvent. Budget accordingly before you start printing.
- Solvents mean you need a fume hood; this is not a kitchen-table build, it is for a university lab or a properly ventilated workshop.
- The dataset contains no assembly instructions — the paper describes the modules but not build order, so expect to reverse-engineer alignment and tuning from the diagrams.
- Each module has its own microcontroller and speed control; if one stage runs too fast or too slow, the fibre breaks or bunches, and tuning that takes time.
- The paper shows finished fibre in multiple colours but does not detail the polymer recipes or dye processes — you will need chemistry knowledge to replicate the results.
- No GitHub repository means no issue tracker, no community fixes, no firmware updates — you are working directly from the published snapshot.
What does the 500-700 pound cost actually cover?
The printed modules, all electronics (Arduino, ESP32, motors, encoders, displays, PCBs), mechanical hardware and assembly materials. It does NOT include the syringe pump (another 1,000 pounds or more), the polymer or solvents, or the fume hood.
Can I build this without a fume hood?
No. The authors state that solvent handling requires a fume hood. Wet spinning dissolves polymer in a solvent that later coagulates in a bath; those fumes are a real hazard.
Is there a single commercial system I can compare this to?
The paper names the Fibre Extrusion Technology (FET, Leeds) lab system as the smallest commercial option: 5 x 2 metre footprint, 65 litre bath, 200,000 pounds base price before any acid-resistant coating or other customisation.
What skills do I actually need?
Multi-part 3D printing with tight tolerances, PCB soldering, flashing Arduino and ESP32 boards, mechanical assembly where alignment matters, and safe chemical handling. This is advanced even by open-hardware standards.
Can I use this commercially?
Yes, the CC BY 4.0 licence allows commercial use as long as you give attribution. The paper and dataset are both under that licence.
Where do I get the polymer and solvent?
Not covered in the dataset. The paper shows cellulose acetate fibres as the example, but you will need to source polymer, solvent and coagulation bath chemistry separately, and that requires materials science knowledge.
Community builds
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Discussion1
FROM THE COMPAREE TEAM
The commercial reference point is a 200,000 pound system that needs five metres of bench; this modular version costs 500-700 pounds in materials (pump not included) and fits under a square metre. If you had access to a fume hood and a syringe pump, what would you spin first?
Joseph A. Houghton and Richard S. Blackburn
Joseph Houghton and Richard Blackburn work at the Leeds Institute of Textiles and Colour, University of Leeds. They built this open wet spinning line to make lab-scale textile fibre research accessible without the six-figure cost of commercial systems. The paper states they ran it to produce multiple colours of finished fibre and released every design file to replicate it.
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DISCLAIMER
- Comparee is not the author of the projects featured here. All rights to each project belong to its creator — every page links to the original source, and we never host creators’ files.
- Information is provided without warranty and may become outdated as projects evolve. Prices are indicative bands only — always check the creator’s parts list for current costs.
- Building and operating any project is at your own responsibility. Protective equipment, safe workshop practice and compliance with local regulations are the builder’s responsibility.
CompareeTEAM11d ago
Practical notes from our verification: the project has no GitHub repository — all 65 files are on Mendeley Data under DOI 10.17632/776w7sj2f2.1, and the licence is CC BY 4.0 across the board, so commercial use is allowed. The HardwareX paper is the only documentation; there are no step-by-step assembly instructions, so you will be working from process diagrams and module descriptions. The 500-700 pound figure is stated in the abstract and covers printed parts, electronics and mechanical hardware, but the pump is explicitly excluded and lab syringe pumps start around 1,000 pounds. The biggest practical hurdle is not the electronics or the printing — it is that you need a fume hood for solvent handling, which means this is a university lab or serious workshop build, not a garage project. The paper shows finished spools of fibre in green, blue, red, pink and magenta, but the polymer recipes and dye processes are not detailed in the dataset.