When last I left you, I was planning to slink off and recover from the July from hell. I posted that on Wednesday August 2. The very next day – I kid you not! – I walked into the living room as a truck was pulling into our driveway. What? I had no appointments or machine drop offs scheduled. Then I noticed the decals on the truck. Continue reading Approaching Autumn
Tag Archives: DIY
Here I go again! eSpinner remote hack and a few improvements
A small update on the eSpinner and a tip for those who want a “remote” for their wheels.
When I built this wheel, I chose a 2.1mmx5.5mm plug. The input power is 12vdc and the tip of the connector is positive. This is a pretty standard setup and it allows me to use an off the shelf battery pack that’s pretty commonly used on many electric spinning wheels. Continue reading Here I go again! eSpinner remote hack and a few improvements
Mechanical Heart – version 2 of the eSpinner
I mentioned back in August that one of the next projects on the list was the next version of the eSpinner. Well, September wasn’t the month for it. Mostly, I wasn’t really in the mood for CAD work and I knew there would be a lot of it.
The first week of December though – I was all over it. We had a brief cold spell and it seemed like a great time to take advantage of the time in.
I started the modifications on December 2nd and ended up doing the bulk of the CAD work over the next four days. At the same time, I began the printing. There were a couple of parts redesigned from scratch but most were modifications of the designs I’d created for the first version back in 2019 when I was learning CAD. This of course has its own pitfalls because how I design has changed a lot and what I did when I was learning was very inefficient. So in updating the files, I had a lot of things I needed to modify other than just dimensions of the drawings.
Here was the wish list for V2.0: Continue reading Mechanical Heart – version 2 of the eSpinner
The DIY electric weaving bobbin winder – a tale in two acts… Act 3
Mostly a little update really. Earlier this summer I finally got out to the garage and spent a little time in serious negotiations with my router. In exchange for it not killing me, I promised to… well not get hurt, I guess? I mean really, what’s my bargaining chip here?
The wood pieces look better now – though far from perfect. The router and I don’t get along well. Continue reading The DIY electric weaving bobbin winder – a tale in two acts… Act 3
A DIY electric weaving bobbin winder – Act 2 – Double Ended Winder
The other day, I posted about a DIY singled ended electric bobbin winder. In November – couple of months after I built that first prototype – I found 4 used End Feed Shuttles (EFS) which suddenly made the single ended winder a little less ideal.
By responding a little too slowly, I just missed out on a used double ended electric winder from the same seller. Having missed out on that , I decided to start plotting a way to modify my winder into a double ended bobbin winder. Naturally, winter in central Alberta isn’t an ideal time to be trying to go outside into the unheated garage to woodwork, so the project got put on hold until January – which is still not an ideal time for wood destructor shed projects! January is when I started my next weaving project (the one I talked about in the last post.) That project showed me that while the current winder could wind pirns, I didn’t enjoy it (I mean, as much as you’d ever enjoy winding bobbins/pirns?)
Once again, the point my mind was stuck on was the mandrel portion of the winder. Additionally, it needed to be very smooth turning – which is why Continue reading A DIY electric weaving bobbin winder – Act 2 – Double Ended Winder
A DIY electric weaving bobbin winder – a tale in two acts – Act 1
I know a few people who read this blog are weavers or spinners who rewind their spinning bobbins before plying and feel like I do that electric weaving bobbin winders in Canada are a little pricey – so I did an experiment this summer. How much would it cost me if I built one? At first, I opted for the single ended winder. It looked simpler to build and I didn’t have pirns that needed the support on both ends. I’ll call this prototype #1.
The part that had me stumped for a while was the metal mandrel that the bobbins fit on. Continue reading A DIY electric weaving bobbin winder – a tale in two acts – Act 1