Here are the plans for the wool picker my husband built in 2005. It is sturdy and does a beautiful job picking the fleece... getting it ready for carding. There are no dimensions for the in-feed tray, it is made of aluminum roof flashing. Once you get that far the pictures should be clear enough to where you can figure it out...if there are any questions feel free to e-mail or call. The one in the picture is made out of hard maple & red oak, any wood would work. I recommend a closed grain wood, like maple, for the parts that will come in contact with the fiber. He also added 1/8" plywood on the top side of the nail plates on the swing arm for appearance. Precision is very important for smooth operation. There are 20 pages in the plans and 12 of them are photographs.

 

 The two most critical parts of these plans are, 1: the length of the swing radius from the shaft to the surface of the top and bottom nail plates. 2: The amount of adjustment of the swing radius. Which is important for different types and lengths of fleece.

The skills to build this in my opinion would be intermediate to advanced. He only built one and didn't keep track of expenses except for the bearings, which He paid $70. In the plans He show's bearings that can be ordered on the Internet for around $10. Except maybe for the bearings all the material should be available at a good hardware store or Lowes. For a rough guess, you probably will spend $100 to $150 more or less. The type of wood that you use is entirely up to you. The dimensions are critical. For the nail plate's. You could use plywood which would limit splitting.

The tools necessary would be a table saw, drill press, a band saw or saber saw and a grinder or a power sander for sharpening the points. You will also need some mechanic tools for nuts and bolts. Sharpening the points and drilling the holes are the most time consuming and tedious part of the job. You can figure the drilling, sharpening and setting the nails will take 3 to 4 hours.