Background
My wife does a lot of fiber art - weaving, knitting, dyeing, etc. She has a functional antique spinning wheel, the typical foot powered kind. She's been mentioning wanting something more portable to take places. I was looking at some and saw that Ashford makes an e-spinner. I about fell out of my chair when I saw the price tag ($850). My wife laughed and said that yup, most everything in fiber arts is absurdly expensive.
But sure enough, someone on YouTube made their own version and posted a video on it. I mostly followed her directions with a few modifications.
Supplies
I had some spalted hackberry I picked up ages ago from West Penn's shorts section that I thought might look good. No fancy joinery, just butt joints and pocket screws to join the bottom with the sides. I did reinforce the joints on the drive side with some dowels. The motor is exactly 2" in diameter, so I used a 2" forstner bit to make a hole, cut it in half, and used that to make a motor mount. The mount is just glued to the bottom and uses a hose clamp to attach the motor to the mount. I 3d printed a pulley using PETG to go on the motor. It's just a friction fit on the axel. A hair tie is used as the drive belt. Chiseled out a place for the C/CW switch and drilled a hole for the potentiometer that controls the speed. Used wipe-on poly as a finish. I turned a knob for the bobbin tensioner out of some scrap cherry burl. For the tension string, I used some fishing line, and a spare spring from a pen kit. The knob is a friction fit into a hole.
EDIT: I'm scrapping the pen spring. Not "springy" enough. She has some spare springs from a spinning wheel tune-up kit I'll use.
Inside view of the motor
Side closeups
Back Hinges
All-in-all, I'm pretty pleased with it, and my wife is excited to try it out. Was about $130 in materials, over half of that was the flyer/bobbin.
My wife does a lot of fiber art - weaving, knitting, dyeing, etc. She has a functional antique spinning wheel, the typical foot powered kind. She's been mentioning wanting something more portable to take places. I was looking at some and saw that Ashford makes an e-spinner. I about fell out of my chair when I saw the price tag ($850). My wife laughed and said that yup, most everything in fiber arts is absurdly expensive.
But sure enough, someone on YouTube made their own version and posted a video on it. I mostly followed her directions with a few modifications.
Supplies
- Ashford Standard Single Drive Flyer - Etsy - $65+shipping
- Ashford Standard Flyer Bearings - $7.50+shipping Woolery
- XD-3420 motor - $20 Amazon
- Motor Speed Controller - $20 Amazon
- 5A power supply - $12 Amazon
- Hardware - Hinges, Cabinet Latch, Hooks - Lowe's
- Hair tie
- Fishing Line
- Pen Spring
I had some spalted hackberry I picked up ages ago from West Penn's shorts section that I thought might look good. No fancy joinery, just butt joints and pocket screws to join the bottom with the sides. I did reinforce the joints on the drive side with some dowels. The motor is exactly 2" in diameter, so I used a 2" forstner bit to make a hole, cut it in half, and used that to make a motor mount. The mount is just glued to the bottom and uses a hose clamp to attach the motor to the mount. I 3d printed a pulley using PETG to go on the motor. It's just a friction fit on the axel. A hair tie is used as the drive belt. Chiseled out a place for the C/CW switch and drilled a hole for the potentiometer that controls the speed. Used wipe-on poly as a finish. I turned a knob for the bobbin tensioner out of some scrap cherry burl. For the tension string, I used some fishing line, and a spare spring from a pen kit. The knob is a friction fit into a hole.
EDIT: I'm scrapping the pen spring. Not "springy" enough. She has some spare springs from a spinning wheel tune-up kit I'll use.
Inside view of the motor
Side closeups
Back Hinges
All-in-all, I'm pretty pleased with it, and my wife is excited to try it out. Was about $130 in materials, over half of that was the flyer/bobbin.
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I'm lucky that some of her big ticket items (e.g. a floor loom) her parents paid for while she was in college - BA in art with concentration in fiber art. I've made several other things for her in the past with scraps from the shop.
