Frequently Asked Questions and Other Useful Information
What currencies can I pay in?
The price shown should be your local currency.
You pay in your local currency.
We accept USD, AUD, GPB, EUR, CAD and a few others.
There are no exchange rate conversion fees. You simply pay the price you see.
What is the warranty?
Warranty Policy
We don't have a complex legal document covering warranties or mishaps because if anything should go wrong we want to work with you to make sure your Gentle Roller functions as described and is in full working order. Our policy is simple:
ALL Gentle Rollers are covered with a 2,000,000 cycles or 2 year warranty* whichever comes first.
If you don’t use it much, your Gentle Roller is covered for 2 years!
If you use it commercially, your Gentle Roller is also covered for 2 years, or 2 million cycles, whichever comes first, just like everyone else!
And we’ll warrant every part of the machine*.
The Gentle Roller has been designed with minimum moving parts, a robust design and minimum potential for failure. If something does go wrong, our goal is to help you fix it and get your Gentle Roller up and running in the shortest possible time.
Any failures are readily fixable with a replacement part and basic tools.
Should you have any issues with your Gentle Roller please contact us in the first instance at philip@gentleroller.com.au
We will be happy to work with you to resolve the issue.
How we know the number of cycles
Your Gentle Roller PCB (the computer board controller of the machine) comes with a built-in cycle count and clock that tells us how many cycles you have done from your date of purchase and how many hours your machine has worked. The numbers are ‘hard coded’ onto a special chip every few minutes so the count is always up to date within a few dozen cycles.
If anything fails, we can recover the number with a few commands on the control panel and determine exactly how many cycles you have used your machine. The numbers are also recoverable even if your PCB fails.
Rest assured that should anything go wrong we’ve got you covered.
* warranty applies against faulty material and workmanship (not against fair wear and tear).
How does The Gentle Roller work?
It works the same way as hand rolling your felt on a pool noodle or similar object. When you hand roll, the felt is agitated between the pool noodle and the surface you are rolling on. With The Gentle Roller, the felt is agitated between the drive roller and the two or three idle rollers.
Is using The Gentle Roller better than hand rolling?
That's a matter of how well you use The Gentle Roller. We like to say that The Gentle Roller is as nuanced as you are as a felt maker.
What we can also say is that regardless of your experience level as a felt maker, The Gentle Roller will give you more consistent felting than hand rolling because whatever set-up you choose is repeated over and over - The Gentle Roller never tires as you will when you do it by hand.
What control do I have with The Gentle Roller?
When felting, there are four key control functions and each have default min/max settings.
Speed: You control the speed from 50% to 100% of maximum motor speed (Max approx 100 RPM). The default start speed is 50%
Cycle Count: You control how many cycles, or rotations of the drive roller, you would like to do from 50-10,000 before The Gentle Roller stops. The default cycle count is 1000 cycles (Equal to about 130 full length manual rolls)
Forward Rotation: You control the number of forward rotations of the drive roller from 0.5 to 3.0 rotations. The default setting is 2.0
Reverse Rotation: You control the number of reverse rotations of the drive roller from 0.5 to 3.0 rotations. The default setting is 2.0
The importance of these settings will become more obvious as you watch the tutorials and become familiar with what works best for your style of felting.
Can I say my item is still handmade?
Handmade is an interesting concept that some would argue is virtually unachievable.
Putting that extreme position aside, I’ll begin with a comment by BigCommerce.com, “Some online communities state that the terms "hand-assembled," "handcrafted" and "hand-altered" are acceptable and synonymous with handmade. Those words insinuate that though the fundamental materials weren't built from scratch, the seller has added his or her own twist to the product.
The recurring issue with the term "handmade" is that some crafts incorporate both hands and machinery during crafting. For example, a garment made with store-bought fabric and sewn on a sewing machine might be considered handmade by some, but not others. Woodworking is a very hands-on process, though it typically includes a variety of tools that make the final products possible."
Now my own slant.
Michelangelo couldn’t have carved David without hammers and chisels and a crane to pick it up. But David was surely his! Pollock couldn’t have painted half his works without a trapeze to suspend him – he had tools that were not handmade, but the work was surely his! No one quibbles about David being made by the hands of Michelangelo, or Blue Poles being made by Pollock’s own hand.
Handmade silk cloth is woven on a loom, so are handmade carpets, a tailor has a sewing machine, a print maker uses a press, a potter uses a wheel, a jeweller uses a diamond cutter and a soldering iron … and I could go on. Then there are the input raw materials, are they handmade?
Every craft has its raw materials and its tools, yet the output of the skilled craftsperson is (usually) considered handmade. The underlying reason for this is the product’s uniqueness, the possibility of flaws or errors and the fact that no two items, however hard you try, are exactly the same.
The Gentle Roller is a tool for felt makers. The work is the work of the felt maker alone. No two pieces are ever the same. The finished item is as handmade as any other artistic endeavour … and I could add, as handmade as Michelangelo’s David or Pollock’s Blue Poles.
Can I roll in one direction only?
While we recommend two-way rotation there are certain circumstances when one way rotation is preferable. All the standard settings (see Q: What control do I have?) can be changed by the user. By changing forward or reverse rotations to zero The Gentle Roller will roll in one direction only.
It is our experience that oscillated rolling (patented) produces better felt than one direction rolling as it is the agitation that induces the felting action.
What if my Gentle Roller breaks down? How do I fix it?
There has been a great deal of design work to ensure minimum opportunities for break down.
If something goes wrong, we will work closely with you to resolve the issue.
In most cases if the assembly housing or the rollers themselves have an issue they can be attended to without any tools other than a soft hammer and an Allen key.
If the motor or PCBs fail, they can be replaced and you'll only need a screw driver.
That said, our test units have completed over 8,000,000 cycles and they are still going strong.
Will it work with my power supply?
The power pack is approved for Australian, USA, UK and EU standards and will come complete with a plug most suited to your address.
It is a 24V DC, 2 Amp power pack (using max 48 watts)
I know that the idle rollers are gravity held in place and there is no entrapment hazzard, but what about the worst-case scenario, what if something did "get stuck"?
Don't worry. The PCB board has a built-in torque over-ride function. If the drive roller is interfered with or becomes "stuck" or "jammed" in any way the PCB senses the stress on the motor and will simply switch off, stop the machine and reboot back to the main menu function.
The power over-ride won't interfere with your felting but is at a low enough setting that no injury could occur before it engages and closes down the motor.
Will the Gentle Roller felt every type of fabric?
The honest answer is NO.
But so far there is only one fabric we have had problems with.
There is a material known as Devoré (also called burnout). Devoré techniques uses blended fabrics which combine protein-based fibres such as silk with cellulose-based fibres such as viscose, cotton, or rayon, in order to create the 'burnout' pattern.
The Gentle Roller can felt Devoré with silk and cotton, and viscose and rayon provided they are not treated for waterproofing.
However, there are cheap copies of the Devoré process available in fabric retailers, typically called “burnout fabric” which are definitely not silk. Some are made with a blend of viscose and polyamide.
The viscose is the velour type material - this absorbs water which is good. The main mesh fabric though is polyamide - it is waterproof at worst and water resistant at best and it won't hold or carry water.
When you try nuno felt using a carrier fabric that is a waterproof mesh material like polyamide, especially with a fine weave, the water gets pushed aside - it doesn’t want to go near the polyamide - there is no 'wicking' effect - and the water takes the wool with it resulting in clumping of the wool.
Polyamide is an interesting material because you can felt with a blend of woollen and polyamide fibers, but usually the blend is 5%-10% and a maximum of 20% polyamide. The polyamide doesn’t actually felt, it just gets tangled in the woollen fibres.
But you cannot felt onto a polyamide mesh (or probably any mesh that is water resistant or water proof and has no 'wicking' effect.)
How noisy is a Gentle Roller?
It's as quiet as a library. See video under the Other Things video section.
How big is a GR1400 when assembled?
Bench Space Required: 165cm L x 36cm W x 25cm H (plus hand access).
It weighs less than 28kg when all rollers are loaded or the fulling drum is in use.
How big is a GR1100 when assembled?
Bench Space Required: 135cm L x 36cm W x 25cm H (plus hand access)
It weighs less than 24kg when all rollers are loaded or the fulling drum is in use.
How big are the GR1400 cartons?
Carton Sizes: Roller Assembly: 148cm x 36cm x 15cm Weight 19kg Fulling Drum Panels: 124cm x 16cm x 12cm Weight 6kg Fulling Drum Components: 26cm x 24cm x 23cm Weight 2kg Control Housing: 38cm x 29cm x 29cm Weight 8kg
How big are the GR1100 cartons?
Carton Sizes: Roller Assembly: 118cm x 36cm x 15cm Weight 15kg Fulling Drum Panels: 94cm x 16cm x 12cm Weight 4kg Fulling Drum Components:26cm x 24cm x 23cm Weight 2kg Control Housing: 38cm x 29cm x 29cm Weight 8kg
