The Russian self-spinning wheel is not only the simplest hand-spinning machine, but also a wonderful work of art. We want to tell you about one of these old self-spinning wheels. It is kept in the family of Anna Mikhailovna Orekhovskaya from the village of Levkovo, Vyazemsky district, Smolensk region. She got the spinning wheel from her mother. The spinning wheel has seen a lot in its lifetime and would hardly have survived to this day, if not for Anna Mikhailovna's father.
The spinning wheel mainly consists of chiseled parts, and its quality and beauty primarily depend on the skill of the turner. Well-dried birch wood is used for the manufacture of turning parts. Birch wood is hard, dense, homogeneous and little cracked. Therefore, from ancient times, all sorts of parts for weaving and spinning machines have been made from birch. If some parts of the spinning wheel can be carved from other wood (for example, from linden or pine), then stag 12, wheel rim and hub 8 must be carved from birch.
All parts, except for the rim, are turned on a center lathe.
In the figures you can see the drawings of the Levkovo self-spinning wheel. All its parts are turned on a simple lathe. But take a closer look at how skillfully they are made. How much love, work and art is put into each spoke of the wheel.
If you make such a spinning wheel according to our drawings and give it to a needlewoman, then, really, she will be sincerely glad of your gift. You can also make a spinning wheel for a school museum - either life-size or in a reduced size. The small operating car of our great-grandmothers will become an interesting exhibit.
The self-spinning wheel consists of three main units: bed, wheels and stag.
The bed is a kind of foundation for a spinning wheel, assembled from two racks - rear 1 and front 2, base 4, legs 7 and crossbar 9. All parts, except for the base, are turned on a lathe. In the head of the rear rack, hollow out a cavity with a chisel, and drill a hole in the end part. Connect the frame parts with glue wedges.
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In addition, make according to our drawings the parts associated with the bed with a movable joint: the upper support-support 11 with a leather bearing 10, a block 14, a pressure screw 13, a pedal 5 with an axle 6 and a rod 3. Insert the leather bearing into the hole slotted in the rack -the support, and insert the support into the tapered hole of the crossbeam. Place the block in the head cavity, screw the clamping screw into it. You will have a device that regulates the tension of the drive cord. Cut out the pedal and the rod from the boards. Connect the pedal to the axle. Drive nails into the ends without heads. Drill the axle holes in the front legs.
The wheel (fig. 8) is driven by a foot pedal and, using the drive cords, transmits the rotational motion to the stag. The wheel consists of a hub (a), a rim (b), spokes (c) and a crankshaft (d). Turn the rim on a lathe with a faceplate.
The most difficult of the turning parts is the wheel rim. It has a diameter of over half a meter (580 mm). It is quite difficult to find a board of this width. Therefore, the wheel rim is turned from a glued block. To make a block, you will need four boards 600 mm long with a section of 180X40 mm. Fasten the boards with a corner joint on a through single tenon, having previously greased the joints with wood glue. After gluing, the block will be a flat wooden frame of impressive dimensions. Such a workpiece cannot be machined on a conventional center lathe. You need to sharpen the rim on a frontal lathe, strengthening the workpiece on a faceplate of the appropriate size. Or cut out of the glued block with a narrow-blade hacksaw.
Forge the axle of the wheel from a steel rod and hammer it tightly into the bushing. Insert the spokes first into the hub, and then connect to the rim, driving in the pins tightly. To insert the finished wheel into the bed, install the axle in the slots of the posts and drive two pins into the specially drilled holes. Then the wheel will not fall out.
Rogach (see Fig. 12) is the most critical node. It is used for twisting and winding yarn. The yarn is wound on a bobbin set on the stag axle. Before spinning begins, the thread is hooked onto the first hook. After the first row of yarn is wound on the bobbin, the thread is hooked on the next hook, then on the third, fourth … and so on until the entire bobbin is filled. Then the stag is removed and the yarn is wound into skeins.
The stag consists of a flyer (a), an axis (b), a pulley (c), a bobbin (d) and hooks (e). Turn the flyer on a lathe and, having received the shape in the form of a bowl, file it on both sides. At a distance of 8 mm from each other, drive thin nails into the flyer, cut off the heads from them and bend them in the form of hooks. There can be seven to ten hooks on each side of the flyer.
Make the axle from a steel rod and drive it into the hole pre-drilled in the flyer, cut a thread at the end of the axle. She should be with a wide step and always left. Grind a pulley and bobbin out of dry birch wood. In the pulley, select the socket for the nut with a chisel. The thread in the nut should be the same as on the axle - with a left-hand thread and with a wide pitch. Drive the nut firmly into the slotted socket and collect the stag.
Put the bobbin on the axle and screw the pulley until it stops. Make sure that the bobbin rotates freely around its axis. Insert the assembled stag into the spinning wheel frame. Turning the support-support 11, insert one end of the stag axle into the leather bearing 10, insert the other into the recess of the shoe 14. Then turn the support, giving it its original position. Now connect the wheel to the bobbin and pulley with the drive cord. First run the cord under the wheel, place the bobbin, then loop around the wheel and pulley. Pull the cord slightly and tie the ends in a strong knot. Turning the clamping screw 13, achieve a good tension of the holes. On the wheel axle knee, put on the rod 3, and tie the lower part of the rod to the pedal with a rawhide strap. As you increase or decrease the length of the strap, make sure that when you press the pedal, the spinning wheel rotates evenly and without much effort. When you get itTie the rawhide strap tightly. And to make the spinning wheel work easily and silently, lubricate its rubbing parts with sewing oil.
The old masters took care not only that the spinning wheel was comfortable and working properly, but also pleasing to the eye, was an adornment of the home. To make your spinning wheel more elegant, some of its parts can be tinted or painted with watercolors or aniline paints and wiped with linseed oil.
Author: G. FEDOTOV, drawings by the author