Kamsack Brute Project Started - Part 2
Like a dog with a bone I spent some quality time with the Kamsack Brute last weekend! I started with a wood rasp and rasped the sides of the wheel well so there was about 1/8" of clearance on either side of the wheel. Amazing how much easier it was to treadle after that! Then I greased the crank shaft grooves and screwed it all back together. It didn't even take very long to do but what a difference it made! Wow!
Then it was time to do some real engineering! The first order of business was to secure the mounting piece for the mother-of-all. The original design had it drilled out so it sat about 7 inches below the top of the uprights. This was definitely not going to work for the jumbo flyer! I'm not ashamed to admit to asking DH for advice and we discussed the merits of dowel and glue over brad nails. My only real concern was vibration from the rotating. We finally settled on two carriage bolts and hubby had a bit of a surprise trying to drill the holes for them! He said the uprights were some of the hardest wood he had ever drilled and I shouldn't be the least bit worried about them not being strong enough to support everything! That was a good feeling!
Then it was time to do some real engineering! The first order of business was to secure the mounting piece for the mother-of-all. The original design had it drilled out so it sat about 7 inches below the top of the uprights. This was definitely not going to work for the jumbo flyer! I'm not ashamed to admit to asking DH for advice and we discussed the merits of dowel and glue over brad nails. My only real concern was vibration from the rotating. We finally settled on two carriage bolts and hubby had a bit of a surprise trying to drill the holes for them! He said the uprights were some of the hardest wood he had ever drilled and I shouldn't be the least bit worried about them not being strong enough to support everything! That was a good feeling!
When you're not working from a pattern or plan it always takes longer to sort out exactly how to put things together and deciding what to use and how to position it. I can't tell you how many times it took both sets of hands to hold things in place checking and re-checking exactly where the orifice cup should sit and where the shaft hole needed to go so the flyer sat level! Not to mention all the adjusting to set up the table saw for cutting boards and the router for shaping the edges.
All that fiddling just to set up the orifice cup board and the shaft hole board! All the screw holes had to be pre-drilled too so the hard wood didn't split. Then I got out my handy dandy wood rasp and smoothed off the tops of the shafts and rounded the corners on everything.
It actually started to look like it all belonged together! One thing I made sure of - everything we did to it was as sturdy as the original wheel!
Funny, when you look at it like this, that was a lot of effort just to set up these paltry structures! LOL! But it was worth it! Next week I'll post the final installment - finishing and spinning! Cheers all!
Posted by Gloria Patre at 9/29/2011 11:04 PM 
Categories: Other Projects, Spinning
Tags: spinning wheel modification spinning wheel repair
Categories: Other Projects, Spinning
Tags: spinning wheel modification spinning wheel repair
Hey, Sis!
I'm so glad that wheel is providing you with so much joy! I knew it was going to the right place when I sent it to you! It looks different and yet the same, if that makes sense?!?
I can testify to the sturdiness of that wheel. It survived not only my own kids playing with it, but a myriad of friends' children as well as various extreme special needs people abusing it. I hope that I get to see you using it soon.
Love you!!!
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