Monday, September 22, 2014

Back to slippage

Once you have a flier/bobbin set with whorls designed for spinning 60s (30,000+ ypp) then a very small amount of slippage will let one spin 80s (45,000 ypp) on the same rig.  For worsted, that is only a slippage of 3 tpi. This small amount of slippage does not seem to significantly affect rpm.

For over-all effort (making flyer bobbin assembly and spinning) this may be the easiest path to 80s.  It also means that a 3/4" thick, gang of 3 flyer whorls can cover a range of grists.  At this point, one flyer whorl gang for spinning 10s and 4-run woolens (6,400 ypp) accurately; and,  a second gang for spinning worsted 40s, 60s, and 80s are at the wheel. Mostly, these two whorls get me through the day. If there is a problem, I have a drawer full of flyer whorls with slightly different DRS.

At this point, I can make several sets in a morning. The other day, I started spinning some woolen weft and discovered that I needed some additional ratios, so with a whole drawer full  of whorls, I made some more.

Making such whorls is no different than a wood worker making a jig so s/he can repetitively cut or drill pieces faster and more accurately.  Look for example at the jigs that Peter Teal used to make combs.

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