Several months ago I purchased a Little Meggie kick spindle from
Heavenly Handspinning.
I spun on it a few times but then started working on more projects and having less energy to get to this by thte end of the day.
I recently found a
kick spindlers group on
Raverly and started poking around to see how other people were doing with their kick spindles. I realized that a part of why I hadn't gone back to spin was because I didn't enjoy it like I thought I would. After I watched a video of someone using their
Mother Marion & rewatched the
Little Meggie videos on YouTube, I had an epiphany...my spindle wasn't spinning as well as it should!
So dh & I investigated...the first thing you can actually see in my pic above...the top whorl is resting on the support post creating friction. That was the first thing to move. Next, I realized that the bearing in the base wasn't actually spinning...so it was creating more friction for the spindle shaft instead of helping. And it was actually creating a groove in the shaft where it was rubbing against the stationary bearing. Part of the problem was that the spindle shaft and the bearing are not square to each other. You can also see from the pic below that the spindle shaft is a bit bowed (to the right)...which doesn't help the situation either.
DH popped the bearing out of the hole & found there that it wasn't drilled evenly so the bearing wasn't sitting square. He scraped out a bit of wood from the side of the hole & put the bearing back.
At this point, the spindle shaft got smoothed down & shoved back in the bearing...I thought it was fixed. And for a few spins, the bearing ran smoothly...then it began to "stick" again and grind away at the spindle shaft again >:(
Now began the experiments to keep the shaft & the bearing together. I tried a piece of paper towel...which worked for a while but the paper got worn down by the pressure. DH suggested adhesive...I
REALLY did not want to do that! Next was modeling clay. Again it worked for a while but got smooshed out by the pressure. At this point, I was getting really frustrated. I considered other things like a cotton ball, a rubber band, duct tape, and electrical tape. Tape options were out cuz of the "goo factor" and I wasn't confident that the others would actually do the trick for the long term.
So the next attempt was air line tubing from dh's fish tank equipment. The only problem was it wasn't a large enough diameter to easily fit over the shaft tip. We both tried stretching it to no avail...so I cut it. I now had a flat piece of tubing and thought it couldn't hurt at least
try it in the hole, right?
Here it is
It works
GREAT now!! I've only had it pop out of place once (cuz I put too much upward pressure on the bottom whorl when giving it a spin with my hand). The most important thing is that the shaft & bearing have not broken free of each other once! I am so happy now :D I was able to get thru the rest of the 2oz of BFL/CorrieX I had started 4 months ago in just a matter of a few more sessions with it. Now I just have to find something to wind it off on so I can start the other 2oz.
SO happy now!
11/17/08: Update
The piece of tubing started breaking down so I took another stab at rearranging the components to get the spin going right. I think the major problem with the bearing is that the hole is not flat inside. Since I don't have the right tools to scrape it out, I remounted the bearing up & away from the bottom of the hole. The sides of the hole are tight enough that it is secure. And the best part is that when I inserted the shaft & spun it, the bearing seated itself into the right angle for a fabulously long spin!
Here's a pic...
