Grommet anyone?

*sigh* in another distraction, I decided to make a couple CD spindles to aid in my plying. Turns out there is no jumbo flyer/bobbin assembly for the Kromski Minstrel....so in order to allow myself to ply the entire bobbin without having to cut the yarn, I'm going to have to result to spindle plying for some yarns. Unfortunately, the majority of my spindles have smallish whorls - the largest(I think) is about 3 inches in diameter.

Anyhow, CDs in hand, I was able to find cup hooks and hardwood dowels at the local home improvement store. The washer/grommet/gasket, however, was a royal pain in the you know what, and I have yet to find a suitable alternative. I wound up settling for some cone washers, but they do not hold the CDs securely, and require supplemental adhesive (also known as glue or epoxy) to keep things where they aught to be.

Some googling later, I've discovered I can either purchase small packets of multi sized grommets (of which I only need one size) or I can purchase a ridiculous quantity of grommets (all the correct size) which would keep me, all my friends and untold number of acquaintances in CD spindles for quite some time. *sigh* Turns out what I'm looking for is typically used for wire management, and not plumbing, which is why I was unable to find the little bugger at the hardware store. (update - I did find a pack of all the same size grommet, qty 5 at my local hardware store! hooray! tho the bargain shopper in me keeps telling me I would have gotten a better deal by buying the big bag from the online source ;) )

Of course, I could probably engineer something to work, but it probably won't look anywhere near as clean as a grommet, and may well involve duct tape...but seeing as I've already made the cone washers work (mostly, with modification) I guess I'll start expending energy on how to make the spindle spin faster ;) click here to see the finished goods.