In the course of my travels and interactions, I am exposed to many other hobby and craft pursuits. While there are examples of good products and tools available in these areas (some of which are suitable for model railway applications) there is a huge amount of poor quality crap on the shelves. Items that are noisy, badly formed, and lack robustness are everywhere. And, while they are cheaply made, they are not inexpensive. Nothing can ruin your fun faster than using bad tools and bad materials; unless you've also paid a premium price for the item(s).
There is something in the hobbyist jewellery milieu called a "bead spinner". It's meant to simply help you get a whole bunch of glass (or other) beads onto a thread quickly and easily. Every example of this tool I've seen has been either completely half-arsed or so noisy that you can't even think while you're using it.
I made several disparaging comments to the tool user (my better half) about the device(s) she has tried. Understandably, I've been tasked to come up with something better, quieter, and likely to last more than a couple of weeks. You'd think I'd learn to keep my mouth shut but, frankly, I couldn't hear my cartoons over the noise of the last unit.
I've already sourced the major components for a prototype. Just working out some details based on a wish-list of features. The most important items for any spinning device are the bearings, so they were dealt with first...
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