Kick Spindle and Yarn Bowl

It has been a long winter and there are a couple more months to go here. The internet has provided some amusement and a few ideas to keep me out of trouble. This contraption was one I recently finished. It is called a kick spindle and is used to spin yarn much like that is done with a drop spindle. This is suppose to be a little faster than the drop spindle allowing for a much longer draw before the yarn has to be wound on. Needless to say my darling wife, Ann, will be the one learning to use it. As usual this was built with what I had as much as possible. This is proof that my shop is NOT a junk pile but a treasure room!

Here are the basic parts, a base  with some way to hold the shaft, the shaft with some type of flywheel, and the spindle. My base is a piece of maple burl I have saved for years for the right project. This was it. It's attractive and heavy which adds stability. I drilled this at a angle to receive the lower shaft bearing. A rubber band is glued unto the bottom edge to maintain clearance for the bearings inner race. That's the green line in the drill hole.I had a bronze bushing that I used for the upper bearing and the brass up right plate is drilled to accept that. That bushing is held in place by two rubber washers intended for a garden water hose. The small brass 'T' shaped piece is a bracket to hold the lower bearing in place.

The shaft is a piece of heavy walled brass tubing which happened to be the correct diameter to fit the bearings I had. The flywheel, a die cast 5 inch pulley, did not quite fit. I cut some thin plastic shims to center it  before locking it in place with the set screw. I gave it a coat of black paint except for the very edge. The area from the flywheel to the lower bearing is wrapped with two layers of leather lacing epoxy in place. The spindle is sized it slide snug into the main shaft. I have it drilled to take a pin but haven't needed it. This tubing is about 1/2 inch inside diameter. Again, this is what I had so that is what I used. The only items I bought for this were a set of four little rubber feet to help keep it from sliding around and a piece of 1/2 inch doweling to make the spindle.

I tapered the spindle down to about 5/16 inch and inserted a small brass cup hook. The large brass plated washed at the bottom is held in place with epoxy and backed with another smaller washer. This is both more and less elaborate than others I looked at on the web. Goggle images will show several dozen variations. Many have much simpler bearings or just a simple pin they spin on. I had them so I used them but I don't think they are that important as long as the shaft can turn freely it will work.

Here is another, simpler, project, a yarn bowl. Keeps the ball of yarn from leaving the area when the yarn is pulled. I bought this simple wooden bowl at a thrift store. I used a dremel tool with a wiz bit to cut the spiral. Sand, sand ,sand, and then some decorative painting. A coping saw or a heavy rasp could be used to cut the spiral too.