Spinning wheel

[Rudy Musclow]

I just completed a spinning wheel which is a copy of one my great uncle made. The style is an upright traveler, which is easy to move around, all the spindles are friction fit, no glue except the wheel. Everything is from scraps of white oak I had accumulating dust. This is my first wood lathe project, I figured by the time I had it finished I would have spindles down. Thanks for looking.

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[John K Jordan]

Most excellent! Quite an ambitious first project - the spindles look great!

Do you spin? We gave llamas and alpacas - the alpaca fiber is wonderful for spinning.

I have several wheels but have never tried making one. I do make some replacement parts for friends. If you have a spinning club nearby you might keep busy if you are interested in making parts and doing repairs!

(BTW, I took the liberty to rotate your photo)

JKJ

[Mel Fulks]

Fine job. Strangly.... You won't have to "put a good spin" on that wheel. It speaks for you. I'm looking for one that spins straw into gold !
Or just silver....I'm not greedy. Love early mechanical stuff.

[Rudy Musclow]

No I don't spin. I bought some fiber to try. The little bit I spun is pretty rough. Would like to learn, I mainly wanted to see how it worked. I'm going to try and find a local spinner to try it and see what they think. I started out making the spindles on a shop smith and purchased a real lathe before I finished iit and once I got hooked on turning wood. Thanks for rotating the photo, I could not figure out how to do that it was was ok in my photo gallery before I imported it.

[Dick Mahany]

Beautiful project! There are so many different elements and the turning and proportions for all of the parts are excellent. I haven't turned any white oak, what is it like to turn and finish? What is the wheel diameter?

[John K Jordan]

No I don't spin. I bought some fiber to try. The little bit I spun is pretty rough. Would like to learn, I mainly wanted to see how it worked. I'm going to try and find a local spinner to try it and see what they think. I started out making the spindles on a shop smith and purchased a real lathe before I finished iit and once I got hooked on turning wood. Thanks for rotating the photo, I could not figure out how to do that it was was ok in my photo gallery before I imported it.

The sideways photos sometimes come from iPhones. They are stubborn (contain a hidden metacode that forces their orientation) until you load them into a photo editor like Photoshop, rotate, and resave. It only takes a few seconds!

I had to make grind a special tool when I made a few spare spools for a friends wheel - she only had one. The tool was for cutting perfect grooves for the drive string.

I don't spin much but like to let young people try their hand. I make drop spindles too - one 14-year-old boy asked for one for Christmas a few years ago! He has a small sheep farm and wanted to spin some of his own wool.

I also learned to knit a little - my goal is to show kids the whole thing - here is the alpaca, this is the fleece, this is the drum carder, here's the roving, this is the yarn, and here is is the hat! Most kids (and a bunch of adults) have NO idea of what it takes.

You might look around for a local spinning club. In Knoxvile near here the Tennessee Valley Handspinner's Guild meets once a month. (https://tnvalleyhandspinners.org/) They welcome visitors and would gladly try out your wheel and give you some feedback and instruction if you want. Where do you live? There may be spinners right around the block! Maybe check with these people: https://weavespindye.org/

JKJ

[Rudy Musclow]

That is great that you are trying to show the whole process. I had the most trouble with the bobbin and whorls (pulleys). I took an old cheap tool and reground it to make the groves. I actually put it aside for quite a while until my skills improved enough to make them.

[Maria Alvarado]

Nice job! Would love to see it in action. Hope you find a local spinner to give it a whorl (;))

[Rudy Musclow]

Thank you Dick! I've talked to one other wood turner that said she did not like to turn white oak. I liked using it mainly because I have a basement full of it. But it did sand nice and when I burnished the spindles with wood shavings they really came to a nice polish. I have very little experience turning other woods for comparison so I am not a really good resource. I did have to be carefull not to get chip out because of the course grain and I experienced a lot of catches mostly attributed to being inexperienced but I thing the hard course grain was not very forgiving for a learner.

[John K Jordan]

Thank you Dick! I've talked to one other wood turner that said she did not like to turn white oak. I liked using it mainly because I have a basement full of it. But it did sand nice and when I burnished the spindles with wood shavings they really came to a nice polish. I have very little experience turning other woods for comparison so I am not a really good resource. I did have to be carefull not to get chip out because of the course grain and I experienced a lot of catches mostly attributed to being inexperienced but I thing the hard course grain was not very forgiving for a learner.

I actually love turning white oak. I mostly turn thin spindles but I've also turned a variety of other things, such as bowls and such. Sometimes I can find incredible figure. I rescued this piece while splitting firewood:

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You should see little or no chip out with sharp tools and fine tool control (which will absolutely come with practice!) and it's really no different than a lot of other semi-hard woods although with larger pores then many.

JKJ

[Rudy Musclow]

That bowl is beautiful. I agree with the sharp tools. Sharpening tools was also part of my " learning curve" .

[Dick Mahany]

These projects from white oak are really making me want to try turning something from it. And all this time I thought white oak was only for quarter sawing to build Craftsman Mission style furniture. While I've worked with considerable amount of it, I never thought about turning anything from it. I can see what I have been missing.