Friday, July 07, 2006
I'm going to venture a guess that I'm approximately 3/4 finished. If you take a gander at either one of the newer Louet models(S40 though cute, need not apply), or the Ashford Kiwi, you'll understand how far along I am. Since all my biggest pieces and the balance of it seem to be in place, I can now focus on the mother of all(which right or wrong, I use as a catchall for the bobbins, whorls, flyer, brake/tension, and the unit that holds all those together).
I changed the crank. Acrylic broke off when I was putting pressure on the spacer on the opposite side(my own fault, cause I sorta put it together in reverse order, but how would/could I know any better?). Reglued it twice, but pressure kept breaking it(this was extreme pressure though, a lot more than with simple cranking, and was exerted all wrong for a crank, poor thing didn't stand a chance). So I took a small aluminum tube(this baby's sturdy though) and bent it to form a crank appropriate for this wheel(and there's a couple of different simple crank designs that can be used for wheels, so just know this is right for my wheel). Anyhow I then glued the crank into a thick square brass tube(I just have brass and aluminum tubes on hand for crafting, and haven't the foggiest what a person could use in their stead). Then I glued that entire unit into the hub of the wheel, where I first drilled a hole into the welded acrylic. So far so snug. Keeping an eye out for replacement wheels but this is good for now:).
Bearing is secure and a strip of innertube is firmly glued in place all along the inner rim of the wheel. This should provide good traction and stability for the drive band. Long run I'm hoping it improves balance(but a tiny ammount of wobble's okay, right now it's a tiny ammount but I'm aiming for 0 wobble).
Ooh, so a practice crank, with everything in place, and a piece of twine tied to the treadle and wheel(to make sure I can measure it all right), it treadles! I tied the twine around both the treadle and crank, and even though it's not as secure and even as it will be when my footman's in place, it's all good. Cause it treadles!
Happy Dance! Wiggle-Wiggle! Shimmy-Shimmy! I am the queen of building something out of nothing! Take that Martha Stewart! Muahahaha!
