Hello everybody!

I’ve had a design in my head for a long time and finally got around to giving flesh to the concept.  Since our name is the Wheel and Anvil, I thought I would design a spinning wheel made from steel to embody both sides to our endeavor.  The construction consists of a steel body, wood wheel with steel accents, wood pedals, some leather, some bearings, a urethane belt, and some 3D printed components as well.

I wanted the body to be made of one single piece of ½ inch round stock to form the base, bent around two sections of pipe inlaid with wood (that will support the wheel and the flyer), then bent into a “U” shape to support a piece of leather with a hole punched to receive the orifice part of the flyer.  The flyer itself would be twisted in a helical-like design to let one walk the spun fiber down the bobbin by shifting it down the twist rather than moving down hooks.

Here are some of my doodles I made as I thought about how to create this work of functional art. 

In the end, I used two pieces of ½ inch round stock, one 8 ft long to form the main body, but I also welded a short section in the front to add more rigidity as it was rather springy and bouncy without it. 

The Flyer consists of 4 pieces.  The orifice is a small piece of pipe.  I then tack welded (oxy-acetylene torch) two long pieces of ¼ inch stock that I wrapped around the pipe, arched around to allow the fiber to pass through, tack welded to the shaft, wrapped around the shaft, then bent out to form the helical corkscrew arms designed to flow around the bobbin.   Here are a couple pictures of the flyer:

For the wheel, I cut it from a recycled board with a router and a home-made circle cutting jig.  I wanted to give it some metal accents, so I forged some strap decoration and made some hand-forged nails (my least favorite task) to attach the metal strapping.  I also added our Wheel and Anvil touch-mark.

 

To make the drive shaft, I upset the end (made it thicker) so the leather strap wouldn’t slip off, then used my oxy-acetylene torch to make the bends that allow the proper offsets for the pedals to work.  I also drilled a hole for a brass pin that engages the wheel to turn it, and another hole for the cotter pin on the back side behind the bearings that were inlaid in the wood/pipe section. 

I had in internal dilemma on what to do for the bobbin, whirl, and tensioning device for the bobbin.  I tried to make a couple bobbins without a lathe, and my attempts were, let’s just say, not effective.  So I thought: do I purchase a lathe…or something I have been thinking of for a while, a 3D printer.  I decided to go with the 3D printer for now since I don’t have the shop space for extra power tools at this time, and it has other uses.  We purchased a Creality Ender 3 Pro from Amazon for about $230, some “wood” PLA for around $25 and I spent some time learning the Fusion 360 CAD program (free for home use) and Cura slicing software (also free for home use).  After some failed attempts, I was able to print a bobbin, a whirl and the tensioning device that mounts on the top bar.  I also have room built-in to allow for much larger bobbins to be printed in the future. 

In the end, I’m glad we purchased the 3D printer.  We have already also used it to make a raddle for Shelley to put her warp on her looms, and I’m sure she has other things in her mind she wants me to design/make.  

After using the wheel, we discovered it needed some tweaks.  I added a large metal ring to the back of the wheel to give it more weight to keep its momentum going since it was driving such a heavy flyer.  Also, I initially used leather strapping holding on the pedals, but they had too much lateral movement while pedaling, so I 3D printed some brackets to screw on the back in addition to the leather to keep the pedals stable  In the end, it is a functional wheel that I am pretty proud of!