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Spinning Wheels
Jan. 21st, 2007 08:45 pmWe've now completed the "proof of concept" version of an upright Charkha-style spinning wheel. ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
teeka is currently trying to spin yarn on it.
As we were assembling it today, I realized that I'd had a "Norm Abrams" moment - everything is built from scrap wood that was in the shop, including the main drive wheel, which I turned out of a 1" slab of Cocobolo that just happened to be in the wood pile (for those of you who never watch Norm, on The New Yankee Workshop he frequently builds jigs and furniture parts from imported hardwood scraps that are leftovers from some other project, or that just happened to be in his wood pile).
Version 2 (the production prototype) will get a better looking crank, teflon washers, will probably keep the cocobolo drive wheel (because you can't glue the stuff, so anything I can use it for is a bonus), but will be based on a 12" length of oak 1x6, and the legs for the drive wheel will be oak (probably 2x2), and the front bracket for the spindle will probably be made from a single billet of oak 2x2, and 2-3 feet of o-ring cord stock (for the drive belt). I think I can make the whole thing from 12" of 1x6, 15" of 2x2, and a 6" piece of cocobolo (which is ~6" wide). Teeka says that the place she gets her wool from says that if I can make them so that they work, and look good, I can probably get $70-80 for them (and the wool place only charges 25% commission).
If the picture in this post doesn't show up, look at http://homepages.cae.wisc.edu/~bigchris/pics/lj/charkha.jpg
teeka is currently trying to spin yarn on it.As we were assembling it today, I realized that I'd had a "Norm Abrams" moment - everything is built from scrap wood that was in the shop, including the main drive wheel, which I turned out of a 1" slab of Cocobolo that just happened to be in the wood pile (for those of you who never watch Norm, on The New Yankee Workshop he frequently builds jigs and furniture parts from imported hardwood scraps that are leftovers from some other project, or that just happened to be in his wood pile).
Version 2 (the production prototype) will get a better looking crank, teflon washers, will probably keep the cocobolo drive wheel (because you can't glue the stuff, so anything I can use it for is a bonus), but will be based on a 12" length of oak 1x6, and the legs for the drive wheel will be oak (probably 2x2), and the front bracket for the spindle will probably be made from a single billet of oak 2x2, and 2-3 feet of o-ring cord stock (for the drive belt). I think I can make the whole thing from 12" of 1x6, 15" of 2x2, and a 6" piece of cocobolo (which is ~6" wide). Teeka says that the place she gets her wool from says that if I can make them so that they work, and look good, I can probably get $70-80 for them (and the wool place only charges 25% commission).
If the picture in this post doesn't show up, look at http://homepages.cae.wisc.edu/~bigchris/pics/lj/charkha.jpg
