Hi all,

After spending eight straight hours (!) giving my handwoven silk yardage a hard press with an iron, I decided to go out and buy a mangle.  I found one on Craigslist for $100, bought it last night, and took it home.  It needs some tender loving care (lube the motor, replace some wiring, etc.) but it does work, more or less.

Which brings me to my question: How does one use a mangle?  Do you use the heat, and if so, how much?  The heating part works but the controls are, well, pretty primitive (it just says "high", "medium", and "low") and I'm a bit nervous about running painstakingly woven silk through a hot mangle whose temperature is more or less unknown.

If using it cold, do you start with damp fabric, or dry?  If damp, do you run it through the mangle once and then let it dry?

Here's a pic of the mangle...

Mangle

The motor works and it flattened a piece of muslin nicely without leaving any rusty marks or anything.

Comments

M C Marker (not verified)

Hi Tien,

I grew up with one of those-- all our sheets and pillowcases were ironed! I don't think I would do silk on "high", but definitely dampen, put in a plastic bag overnight or so,  so it is evenly damp (not wet), mangle (see below), and then hang on a drying rack. Or drape on a drying rack. I have an inexpensive one from K-mart that has 4 rods across the top, so I would lay it all across the top and drape the hanging part across other rods so most of the weight is supported all through the length.

You can run it through as many times as you want. I think I would start with low heat, see how it feels and increase to medium, if the low feels too low. Also try a pillowcase on high for comparison.

If you have space to keep it, it's a wonderful piece of equipment! The cover on the padded area looks good too.

Mary Marker

 

kerstinfroberg

In my (Swedish!) opinion that is not a mangle - . A mangle should be able to apply lots of pressure - just an example: the upper half of my big monster mangle weighs about 800 kg (would be more than double in pounds). I doubt that any "modern" cold mangle can give that, but I don't really know. Anyway, what I'm trying to say is that pressure is an important part of the mangling.

And - if using a "warm magle" on linen, turn off the heat!!!

garic (not verified)

My mother had an Ironrite when I was a kid. She "let" me do the flat things on it and she did the more complicated shirts, pants, whatever. (not a bad job in the cool basement on a hot summer day actually) Everything was always sprinkled like normal. Ours had 2 knee controls. One was for a continuous feed and the other was for a press & release, something that was good for doing shirts, etc.

Karren K. Brito

I have used these for my production work- old Ironrite's. Ironing is the bottleneck and sitting can relieve operator fatigue.  I iron the silk damp, heat and all. It depends on the moisture retentive properties of the silk, my very thin silk comes right out of the spin cycle to the mangle.  Have to keep the other pieces in a closed box/bag to keep them from drying out.  I don't like the silk to dry with creases, I think it makes them much harder to iron out.  You can put the cloth through the mangle as many times as need to get it dry and smooth.

I have found that the padding under the cover on the roller is critical.  It needs to be of uniform thickness to feed straight.  When it gets compressed it doesn't feed well.  I replace it with a padding that looks like cotton roving loosely held together with knitting. I get all this stuff from Banach's but their website is akward; go here http://www.banaschs.com/catalog_page.htm, get the pdf for pressing accessories and look at page 4.  The stuff in the picture labelled B is what I use. It has to overlap a bit on the roller.  Then I cover it with moleskin cloth, nap inside.  I would also clean the hot patten with Easy-off or its equivalent. 

 

Saves lotsa time.

Mary Rios (not verified)

I brought my old Ironrite home about 10 years ago (Mr. says if it isn't old and require a dolly, she probably isn't interested). I use it for EVERYTHING! I even tried to run my freshly made paper thru!

Kirsten is right about the weight of this ironer and the difference in what's she knows of the the word mangle. This isn't the "mangle" used in finishing linen and wool, but you will not regret it for pressing.

Watch for oil. I would double check on a piece of cotton EVERY time you use it - the machines are old, and things happen. Just run a piece of cotton fabric thru and that will show if oil is dripping on the fresh pressed piece.

Why this piece of home equipment isn't made for the world we live in is beyond me. i use mine all the time.

What brand is yours and did you get a chair with it?

tien (not verified)

Mine's a Kenmore.  No chair, though!

I'm planning to play around with it this weekend, since I'm planning on dyeing stuff and will need to press some (commercial) yardage.  It does need some TLC beforehand, though - the power cord is ancient and scary-looking (covering crumbling, electrical tape wrapped around), some of the internal wiring could stand to be replaced, belt inspected, motor lubed, bearings repacked, etc. - well, according to my extremely meticulous S.O., anyway!  I will probably do at least three-quarters of what he recommends, though, because I think it will make for a better-running machine.

AND...my loom is up and running again!!  So, much cause for celebration.

wandarzimm@com… (not verified)

when I was a kid, we sprinkled the clothes and rolled them up before ironing (do you remember the little sprinker heads that fit into a pop bottle?)  if we sprinkled to much, we'd just put the rolled up items in the freezer, saved them from molding..I've never tried this on handwovens. (i.e. 'sprinked to much' = overly exuberant child assistance--similar to the post about weing allowed to 'help' with the mangle

wandarzimm@com… (not verified)

when I was a kid, we sprinkled the clothes and rolled them up before ironing (do you remember the little sprinker heads that fit into a pop bottle?)  if we sprinkled to much, we'd just put the rolled up items in the freezer, saved them from molding..I've never tried this on handwovens. (i.e. 'sprinked to much' = overly exuberant child assistance--similar to the post about weing allowed to 'help' with the mangle

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