How To Start Making Brooms
Explore and become an expert broom maker with the basic guide and simple understanding in making brooms.
How To Make A Broom Step By Step Guide
The Manufacturing Process:
It is important to note that brooms made from broomcorn and are made at a station, using a single piece of machinery.
Using this machine, brooms are largely still assembled by hand. The process described below is used by the largest manufacturer of brooms and the factory uses about 28 makers to produce 6,000 brooms per day.
1. Bringing In The Broom Raw Material
The raw material for the broom, the broomcorn, comes into the factory already processed and bundled. The bundles are sorted by length and are sorted by the color of the fiber.
Bundles are grouped together in a bale weighing about 120 lb (54 kg). Broomcom must be wet in order to be worked effectively and must be quickly dunked in water before being delivered to the operator.
Each bale is lifted with a crane and submerged in a tank of water for 10 seconds. The bundles are then removed from the water using the crane.
2. Breaking Apart The Broom Bales
Workers break apart the wet bales and separate the smaller bundles within the bales. The bundles are placed on racks and rolled to operators who sit at broom-manufacturing equipment.
3. Operator Handles The Broom Work
An operator sits at a broom-making machine and has the broomcom and solid handles there to work. An individual handle is picked up by the operator. The operator inserts a metal wire into a hole drilled near the bottom of the handle. Then, the insides are first applied to the broom. In this process, the lowest-grade grass is pressed around the wooden handle, forming the center of the broom. This thick bundle of grass is secured tightly to the handle using the wire attached to the handle through the hole.
4. Broom Shape Stage
Then, the shoulders and sides of the broom are given shape as smaller bundles of lesser grade grasses are placed along each side of the center bundle of grass. This side corn is secured to the central bundle of grass using more tinned wire that is wrapped by hand tightly around the side corn as well as the central body of grass.
5. Cutting The Broom
Next, the grass is cut off in a straight line just above the wire by the operator using a knife.
6. Attaching The Broom
Over this foundation of lower-grade dbroomcom or other grasses is now added the outside of the broom, or the broomcom we see when we look at a broom. The hurl, the best grade of broomcom used in a broom, is attached to the broom. It is laid atop the center section and shoulders, completely covering it. The hurl is physically attached to the broom using the same piece of white metal wire used earlier in the process.
The final construction step is referred to as the run down. The operator runs the wire that secures the hurl down to the handle and nails it off, thus securing the cut end to the wooden handle. The grasses and broom-corn are now completely secured to the broom.
7. The final construction step is referred to as the run down. The operator runs the wire that secures the hurl down to the handle and nails it off, thus securing the cut end to the wooden handle. The grasses and broom-corn are now completely secured to the broom.
8. The brooms are now constructed but are not finished yet. In order to complete the broom, the broomcom must be dried out completely. The brooms are moved by rack or palette into a very large drying room that is thermostatically controlled. Depending on the weather, the brooms are left in this large, hot room for five to six hours. When instruments inside the room indicate that no more moisture is being released from the brooms, the heat kicks off and the broomcom has completely dried.
9. The brooms are now seeded, meaning that cylinders roll vertically over the broomcom, thus removing all the seeds and small pieces of broomcorn not secured to the handle that will fall out quickly upon use.
10. The seeded brooms are taken to sewing machine operators who run the brooms through a heavy-duty sewing machine with two needles that is threaded with thick twine. The brooms are put through the machine and the broom is flattened and its shape is maintained through the double, triple, or quadruple rows of sewing (depending on the machine and company) that holds the grasses tightly. It takes about 45 seconds to sew the brooms into a flat shape.
The brooms are moved by cart to final finishing, where they are trimmed across the bottom so they are even, packaged, and sent for distribution.
Broom Making Equipments
To make a hearth broom, 28 heads of broomcorn are used for the inside layers of bristles and 17 heads for the outside layer. Each head is measured with a cubit (the distance between your elbow to your longest finger). Put the knuckle of the corn, the place where the head meets the stalk, at your elbow. If the bristles, or brush, are past the tip of your fingers, that stalk is a keeper. If the material is too short, it will be used for a whisk broom later.
The broomcorn is prepared by cutting the stalks differently for each layer. Stalks are trimmed just past the knuckle on the stalk side for inside layers, but left longer for outside layers so they can be plaited. Place the broomcorn in a bucket of hot water with the cut ends submerged. The corn needs to soak for a minimum of 15 minutes.
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