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.