Wendy Wheel - Drive Band

I am trying different types of drive band on my wendy, so that I can find thr best suitable one.

First one I tried was my crochet yarn, cotton, blue color. Rumning good, but needs to be replaced super quickly. Not fun.

Second one: fishing line. Not easy to handle. Forget about it.

Third one: clothes draw string. Working ok-ish, but the pulling is too strong. Maybe good for bulky and art yarn.

Fourth one: cotton twine for cooking. So far this is what i tries. Will ad more if I changed them.

On the picture above, cotton twine works much better to make thin yarn than the drawstring.

Wendy Wheel - DIY How to make Flyer

Hello...

as promised, this is my frugal design for Wendy flyer...

What you need:

For the FLYER:
part #1) 1 pcs of 12 x 12 mm square dowel, 13.5 mm long
Choose one of part 2A or part 2B:
part #2A) 2 pcs of 8 mm diameter cylindrical dowel, 12 cm long, sand the edges, OR
part #2B) 2 pcs of 12 x 12 mm square dowel, 11 cm, sand the edges

part #3) 1 pcs of 8 mm diameter cylindrical dowel, 18.5 cm
part #4) Wood glue or super glue

Fig 1. Superglue

tools #5) Electric Drill
tools #6) Drill bits 7.9 mm
tools #7) Drill bits 1.6 mm (or as required for your hook)
part #8) 9 pcs Open or closed loop Hook screw

Fig 2. Screw eyes

tools #9) Sanding paper or sanding belt
tools #10) Saw, manual or electric
part #11) 8 mm plastic tubing (mine using clear vinyl), at least 5 cm long.

Fig 3. Vinyl Tubing

tools #12) box cutter
tools #13) Courage
tools #14) Zero carpentry skill, but willingness to try


How to make the Flyer:
a) attach the arms into part #1 (head board)
for 2A
Drill a hole at each edges of part #1 using 7.9 mm drill bit. I drilled it until almost 10 mm depth, I didn't drill it through the other side of the square wood. Ensure that the edge of the drill hole is not exceeding 5 mm from the edge (side) of the wood. Afterwards, I put the glue in the inside of the hole, and push in the flyer arms. I found that this method is less wobbly than the 2B, if I do not have extra reinforcement.
OR
for 2B
Glue 2B to each edges of part #1. To further reinforce, you can use nails/bolt (drill a hole before you push them in), or as what I used, big staples (I don't really recommend). Add more glue after stapling if needed.

b) Prepare the spine (part #3).
If you use 18.5 cm length dowel, sand one of the edge for around 1.5 cm length to reduce the size to fir 6 mm hole. You can make it longer, but the part at the head of the flyer (where it connects to orifice) should not exceed 1.5 cm. So if you have a longer spine, have the smaller edge sanded longer. Example, you have a 19 cm spine, it's best to have the sanded part 2 cm long. Longer spine doesn't mean that it will make it more secure. It will still slide if you don't secure it with rubber band/lock nut (please refer to other notes at the end of this post).

Fig 4. Sanded Spine

c) Attach the spine (part #3) into head board (part #1)
drill through the middle of the flyer headboard (part #1) using 7.9 mm drill bit. Push in the 8 mm dowel into the hole. Please be reminded that the dowel pushed through the flyer headboard should not exceed 1.5 cm.

d) Attach the hook
Drill holes using 1.6 mm drill bits on top of the headboard (part #1), aligned with the orifice. Drill 2 other at each edge of the headboard, and another 8 evenly distributed on the flyer arms. See my simplified plan below.

Fig 5. Plan for Prototype 1 (using part #2B)

Fig 6. Plan for Prototype 2 (using part 2A)

Here's some photos of the progress:

Fig 7. Prototype 1. Note that the orifice was not using the hose tubing. I changed the design at the end (refer to my story post). 

Fig 8. Prototype 1, please note that the arms were too long, so I cut it. please follow the design plan above. If the arm exceed the bobbin length, the drive band will be caught up by the arms. 

 e) Make the orifice.
Orifice is made simply using the 8 mm plastic hose. Mark 1.5 cm from one edge, and then using a box cutter, carefully carve a little hole on it. Attach to the flyer spine (part #3). I know it sounds wonky, but it is suprisingly working just fine.

Fig 9. Installed tubing orifice. Note that I haven't added hook in the middle of the head bar.
Mark the hole using box cutter and carefully carve the hole. 

and THAT's IT!


How to make WHORL?
As this is a customized flyer, I have to make customized whorl too. I borrow the idea from dodec spinning wheel.
For this one, I used:
1) Pine dressed 42 x 19 mm bar, I cut it square so the sizing became 42 x 42 x 19 mm
2) Drill bit 7.9 mm
3) Sanding belt

How to make it:
a) Sand from the middle part outwardly using sanding belt, do on all 4 sides so that you created a ridge in the middle of the thick part of the block
b) Drill a hole right in the middle of the block (42 x 42 mm) side.
c) Put into flyer (screw in. I know it doesn't have any screw bit, but as it's 7.9 mm hole pushed into 8 mm rod, the whorl is slightly difficult to be moved.

Fig 10. Dodec style whorl

 DONE!

Fig 11. Prototype 2 working. Notice that the bottom left (next to orifice) has the lock secured with a rubber band. 

Now let's see the video of the flyer at work.

Prototype 1 (Square arm)

 Prototype 2 (cylindrical arm)

Other notes:
>> Remember that after I changed into tubing (previous post) there's nothing to harbor the flyer to stay in place? I used hair band on the back of the flyer so it won't slip through the 6 mm frame hole.
If you want it to be fancy, you can consider using lock nut (nut with silicon rubber so it wont be easily moved through rotating wheel movement).

Fig 12. Hair band at the other end of the flyer.

How much do I spent?
Note that I bought all of the things from Bunnings (all in AUD)
- 8 mm Tasmanian Oak dowel (2.4 m) = $4.41
- 12 mm x 12 mm Tasmanian Oak Dar (1.2 m) = $4.94
- 42 x 19 mm Pine Dressed (1.2 m) = $3.15
- Screw Eye Hook Everhang 15 mm (25 pcs/pack) = $2.80
- Super glue = $2
- 8 mm Hose Clear Vynil (5 m) = $12.5

Total spending: $29.8
All tools are borrowed from campus or friends.

Of course, this is without trial and error cost :p. But it's still less than $100, I think.

 Hope this helps. If you have any question and if I can help, just let me know and comment below. Or get in touch with me in facebook if you are my friend.

Wendy Wheel - The story

Hellooooooo....

long time no see? :D

So, for those who doesn't know me, I moved to Sydney around mid 2018. As a country with most Merino, combined with my eagerness to be a good spinner, I decided to buy a spinning wheel. Well, mostly because I want to try all those wool fiber and play around with it.

Now, back to the spinning wheel...

Few weeks ago, I saw an ad in facebook selling a second (or third, or fourth, dunno) spinning wheel. The cut out, the design, the look... the spinning wheel looked so gorgeous. I asked around in Australian spinners facebook group, and several of them identified it as Wendy Wheel.

Wendy Wheel is a spinning wheel made by Phillip Poore from New Zealand. There's a long history of how this type of wheel was made by him, and you can read a little about it here. However, the Wendy wheel advertised in facebook missing one of the most important spare part: Its flyer.

My friend, Tessa, had convinced me to buy it and believed me that I can easily get the flyer or its replacement. Somehow I trusted myself that I would be able to get the flyer too. So I bought it for 50 AUD. I should've bargained more :p

Alas, I picked the wheel from Little Bay on Saturday 9th of Feb. Brought it home on a bus, and as I check the part under the treadle, the wheel was apparently made in 1976. So cool, huh? Here's the photo under the spinning wheel.

what's below

Also, when I bought the spining wheel, it came with a filthy yarn. Ew... had to remove it.

filthy yarn on original bobbin

So, I contacted here and there to see if anyone selling the flyer. NOBODY. However, Poore's son (and daughter in law?) replied me back with the original flyer design. VJ handicraft, who sells other Wendy accessories, such as bobbin and whorl, offered to make the flyer for a cost and time. I thought... that'll take a long time, and I'm just too impatient. I decided to just make one.

I went to Bunnings several time, and had to consider so many different design in my mind. I researched on how to make DIY flyer. So there are two examples I was interested at in youtube:
PVC Pipe version:

Dowel version:

Luckily, I went to NSW Spinners and Weavers guild on how to maintain your spinning wheel. Saw lots of different types of flyers. Starting to understand the function of whorl. Getting to understand the mechanism. Understanding scotch and irish tension. Saw the original flyer and took lots of notes from it.

So there were plenty of stuff that I bought. I probably spent almost $100 (excluding the oil to polish the wheel). I got the measurements and found that:
- Orifice diameter should not exceed 10 mm.
- The other side of the orifice, where the whorl locked into, should have a diameter not more than 6 mm.
- The bobbin inner diameter is 3/8 inch. That's 9.275 mm, I think
- Size of the flyer should not exceed 15 cm (width) and 19 cm (length).
- Bobbin length is around 12 cm, but the length of the flyer arms should not exceed the bobbin's rod.

Here's the chronological ideas:
Idea 1: PVC pipe
Hurdle: smalles PVC diameter found was 15 mm.

Idea 2: Cylindrical dowel for flyer
Action: bought the 16 mm dowel for the flyer.

Idea 3: Square shaped dowel for flyer
Action: bought 12 x 12 mm square dowel

Do note: I have zero carpentry skill. This is the first time I saw anything.

Saw the dowels into the proper sizings. Found out that my campus have an open workshop. I went there to sand my flyer bits. I do both on idea 2 and 3, but when I tried to nail them... they cracked. Finally tried to glue them. One of the staff suggested me to staple the wood before gluing, which I did. However, cylindrical dowel is not working as it's not easy to glue or nail them together. So I dropped the cylindrical dowel idea.

After I got the square shaped dowel well glued, I made a hole in the middle of the mid-dowel. I chose 8 mm cylindrical dowel for the flyer spine. I found that 9 mm dowel fits perfectly into the bobbin. But, while I was learning the machinery of the original flyer, I saw that the bobbin did not fit snugly onto the flyer spine, and it should still be able to spin on it. Hence, I chose 8 mm dowel. When I was going to drill a hole, the staff said drill bits for 8 mm hole is not available at that moment. So, I chose to use 7.9 mm drill bit, as I heard that wood tend to have bigger hole after drilling, due to its softness. I must say that it gave the perfect fit. The 8 mm dowel fits super snugly into the hole and doesnt move. So I don't need to glue it. Still remember that the other side of the spine diameter should not exceed 6 mm? Initially, I used pencil sharpener to reduce the size. It worked on Idea 4. But as I had to change to Idea 5, the lock has to be installed at the back side of the flyer. So read the description on Idea 5.

Now thinking about the orifice:
Idea 4: Using irrigation hose connector 10 to 13 mm.
Hurdle: It's a really good choice as it has a stopper (a disc in the middle of the hose connector). But finally I found that it's not long enough. The hole I made (and that's maxed already) was just right above the metal frame. Hence, when I spin the flyer, the yarn kept on caught on the flyer lock on the frame. I had to change the idea, hence Idea 5.

Failed design, not working

Idea 5: Hose tubing 8 mm for orifice.
Hurdle: The previous version, the hose connector, has some sort of lock. As this is just a hose tubing, it doesn't have anything to lock it from sliding in and out (horizontally, if it makes sense). So, instead of making the lock at the orifice part, I decided to lock it at the back. The other end of the spine is then sanded so that the diameter of the spine reduced from 8 mm to less than 6 mm. I kept the length at least 1.2 cm, so it will have extra length for me to secure it. If you want to make it look sophisticated, use lock nut to secure it. But I'm in frugal mode, I used hair band to secure it.

Oh yeah, the orifice lock is also loose, so I secure it with rubber band. So frugal of me. To replace the flyer hook, I used a closed loop screw hang. I just need the yarn to go around it, doesn't mean I need it to go into the loop hole. So I installed 4 on the sides, and you must have it at the edging too.

Drive band is from normal cotton yarn and carefully square knotted. so far working just fine.

After I completed with first prototype, I figure that I can actually just drill a 7.9 mm hole and use the 8 mm dowel as the flyer arms. So this is prototype 2. Same way of assembly with the square one, and I use the same square dowel as flyer head board too. I think this is a much easier way to make it. I glued the dowel into the hole in the square dowel sides. Eventhough my drilled hole is not straight, the flyer still works just fine.

Idea 6: DIY Whorl
Action: as I do not have the proper hook for the original whorl, I decided to make my own whorl. Stealing idea from dodec wheel that I made before, I used a square cut wood and sand the middle part so that it has V shaped ridge surrounding the mid part. I made a 7.9 mm hole in the middle of the square and it fits perfectly into the flyer spine.

Next post, I'll be sharing the measurements and how to.