Ergonomics/easing arm strain while tufting?

Problem: I am young but my body is brittle lol. After a full day of tufting, only 2 actual hours of tufting throughout the day but also a lot of yarn winding, my hand and arm are completely shot, I’m icing it now.

Anyone have tips for less strain pushing the gun so I can make more progress?

Support#1: I had to hook up a spring balancer (yellow thing in pic) to take the weight of the gun off. Actually helps me tuft better because I can focus on keeping my needle perpendicular to the fabric and it keeps me straight running vertical lines.

The cheap hard plastic front handles are no good for your wrist and hands. They make some sweet camera grips that are exactly like our handles and screw in. You might need a cheap screw adaptor if it’s a different size. All tufting guns are different. I have a padded/shock absorbing handle to take some of the vibration out.

They make silicone and rubber real bang bang gun handles that work for the main plastic handle on the body of the tufting guns. That also helps for grip and absorbing the shock and vibration coming from the gun.

Basically you need some padding between you and the main body of the guns to absorb the shock. Pic of all my stuff together.

They are definitely an upgrade but a little tricky to hook up. I’ve changed my setup a few times over the years and I’m about to tear my entire frame down and redo it once I finish my current rug. Instead of a pulley system to move the balancer left and right I’m gonna try some linear bearings on a rod. My setup is pretty good now but not smooth as I want.

Support#2: Firstly,Invest in an automatic yarn spinner. Life is so much easier!

Secondly,Spring balancer tool helps offset the weight of the gun. I am still considering getting one but not sure how to set it up. Seems like you need a bunch of extra things to achieve the proper setup.

What's your idea? welcome to leave your remarks. And hope this article can help you, thanks.