Early American Flax Wheel [WIP]

Dave R · 23 Oct 2019, 17:12

A good project to practice your Follow Me skills.

HornOxx · 23 Oct 2019, 18:11

My mother-in-law has just such a part standing as decoration in her living room.
(and I'm glad that she doesn't make scratchy wool with it for christmas pullovers!)

Dave R · 23 Oct 2019, 18:31

davidheim1 · 24 Oct 2019, 03:39

Beautiful model, as usual.

Ten points to the first person to correctly explain what "etaoin shrdlu" refers to.

Dave R · 24 Oct 2019, 14:03

Thank you, sir. It's a challenging one. The "plans" I'm working from were very poorly done with a load of bad dimensions. Makes me wonder if anyone actually built one of these from the articles in the magazine.

Still have to finish up the treadle and work out the pitman arm as well as add hooks to the flyer.

It's definitely been a good learning experience. I'd never bothered to learn how a spinning wheel works before.

david_h · 24 Oct 2019, 14:22

Very Nicely done Dave.

but Be careful! If you touch the needle, you'll fall asleep for a hundred years and I don't think you would want a charming Prince coming to wake you up!

Dave R · 24 Oct 2019, 14:30

Thank you.

LOL. You're absolutely right. No princes to wake me up. If I could sleep that deeply I wouldn't want anyone to wake me up for at least a month.

As I've been working through this thing, I've noticed that the flyer spindle; the shaft that the flyer (that sort of U shaped piece) the bobbin, and the sheaves ride on, is tapered to a point. I wonder if that's what she pricked her finger on.

Dave R · 31 Oct 2019, 03:08

L i am · 31 Oct 2019, 22:05

Realy nice work Dave would be cool to see the generational development of that machine. I think it is very much a case of form follows function. the 3 legs instead of 4 so it would be stable on uneven floors like a milking stool ((and incidently the same concept as a triangle in a surface modeller)
And the front legs that mimic the giraffe when it goes down to drink. Very cool:)

Dave R · 2 Nov 2019, 15:09

Thanks Liam. I wonder if there ever was a four legged version back in the old days. Not only would it have been unstable on an uneven floor which would make getting consistent results difficult, a fourth leg would have just been more work and made the wheel more costly.

Aaron did a model of a different wheel in his live stream yesterday. I decided I'd have a go at it myself. A few parts left but it's close.

A close up of the flyer and bobbin assembly. Still needs hooks on the flyer.