3D Printed Circular Sock Machine - Review

Why socks?

Knitting socks is great fun, they are relatively quick, generally useful and there is a huge range of sock yarns available meaning they can be made in almost any colour or pattern that yarn can come in.

Why a sock machine?

However for plain stocking stitch socks, there is one part of the knitting process that is just a bit less fun than the rest and that's the foot, or if you like long leg socks the foot and the ankle. The parts that are made of rounds upon rounds of just stocking stitch. This can be considerably sped up by using a sock knitting machine. In fact depending on what machine you get every component of a sock can me done on a sock knitting machine but mine is quite basic and just churns out tubes. However, this works for me, it speeds up how long it takes me to make a sock, I enjoy the element of hand knitting and I get to use my stash of sock yarn at a much more reasonable pace.

Why 3D printed?

As mentioned other sock machines can fully produce a sock, including the hung hem, the short row heel and the short row toe. The best machines out there include the Erlbacher and the tru-knit. Both fully metal machines built to churn out socks at an almost industrial pace. These are solid work horses, they are durable and they will set you back thousands. If I had that kind of money to spare I would absolutely invest in an Erlbacher, they look amazing!

Unfortunately I don't have that kind of money lying around so I looked into the significantly cheaper option; 3D printed sock machines. A fully formed sock machine with all the hardware included set up and tested will cost between £/$ 300 to £/$ 600. There will still be a bit of a learning curve when it comes to using it, but it will more or less work out of the box.

I am very lucky and have a company local to me that offers 3D printing commissions, you simply send them the files your are considering they run them through some software and come back to you with a quote. I picked the files for the sock machine and got a quote. I believe for the 3D printed parts I paid around £150. I then purchased the recommended hardware and needles. For me going with a 3D printed machine was the only way I would be able to have a sock machine.

Why this file?

I must admit, I did just pick the first one I found. The files I had printed were the version one sock machine by the thingiverse creator jeeping johnny. My machine is known on most online forums as JJv1. I was aware that there was a version two at the time of printing, however I was avoiding the need to cut into any table tops or surfaces as space is limited in my home. I wanted to use the table clamp and was worried this wouldn't work with version two.

What would I do differently?

I do wish I had done a LOT more research. I hadn't spent nearly enough time on the 3D printed sock machines Facebook group as necessary and I had not read through the comments on the thingiverse page. If I had done either of these prior to printing I would have learnt, even the thingiverse creator jeeping johnny himself recommends printing version two over version one as it is all round a much more functional machine. I also would have learnt there are even more creators offering files for 3D printed sock machines and I could have really looked at all of them and their features to find the one that is best for me.

Final thoughts

Despite this, I really do love my sock machine, it produces small circumference tubes and I have three different cylinder sizes to choose from. It will do exactly as I had hoped; speed up my sock knitting. I will probably branch out and get a more sophisticated machine printed for me in the future but for now I am happy with what I have. I would recommend any one that is thinking about a circular sock machine to really research heavily for as long as possible before jumping in. Research, research, research! I usually am a research first kind of person but with Christmas was fast approaching and I simply got carried away.