here's a neat little home made diy stringer you could make with some spare parts. you still need a set of flying clamps, but the tensioner you can get from any fishing tackle store. http://home.freeuk.com/mpescod/Badminton.htm
looking at the design, there does not appear to be any reason why it wouldn't work. it offers a 4 point support, although it is not clear from the picture how it is physicall secured to the mount other than outward pressure from the points. i think the wood structure will be adequate for badminton although not sure what upwards tension it would be able to manage without warpage or damage of the machine. not really sure how the tensioner works, since angle piece where the weigh scale is attached looks secured to the frame and immovable. also the hook rod that connects to the scale is at an angle, pulling the scale would be inaccurate. it looks like it would be a two handed operation, in that you need to first tension the string, there doesn't seem to be any mechanism to lock the string in place while you put the flying clamp on. there may be a bolt on the other side, so that tensioning is by crank, but it doesn't appear on the picture. but then, the price looks right. you could easily get all the parts from a home depot or you might even have most of the parts around the garage...
needle for weaving? are we planning on weaving a rug? no need for a needle, unless you want to poke your partner with it... in fact, other than a press to keep the racquet head from distorting, you don't actually need a machine at all. just a set of flying clamps, pliers and a wooden dowel. in the past i have strung my own racquets prior to buying my machines, by hand. you string the entire racquet, leaving some slack in each line. at the end you tension each line with the wooden dowel and clamp it down. accuracy is based on experience, but there is no scale to measure the actual tension.