Jennifer WagnerLIS 7963July 30, 2014

HOW TO CONSTRUCT A

DODEC SPINNING WHEEL

The instructions I found and followed are available online. They are available through Spinning Daily’s website (http://www.spinningdaily.com/media/p/9016.aspx).

The instructions that follow are mostly a simplified version of those on Spinning Daily with some advice on how to make it even simpler and cheaper for anyone who may want to construct one for themselves.

NOTES ABOUT THE INSTRUCTIONS

Why a spinning wheel? I am a knitter and a spinner. Currently, I spin only on

spindles and it takes quite a long time to spin up a skein of yarn on a little spindle.

Commercial spinning wheels, however, usually cost $300 on up, even for a used one. I do plan to purchase a wheel someday, but for about $40 or so, I was able to construct a simple wheel to give learning to spin on a wheel a try without the big investment.

Dodec? Short for Dodecahedron – a shape with 12 sides. The wheel

part of the spinning wheel is made out of 12 small pieces of wood.

WHY?

Materials: (2) ¼-20UNC x 3½ ful l thread, hex-

head bolts (1) ¼-20UNC x 3" fu l l thread, hex-

head bolt (2) 1" x ¼" fender washers (3) ½" x ¼" washers (1) 3/8" nut (6) ¼-20UNC nuts (2) ¼-20UNC lock nuts (1) dowel ¼" x 12" (1) shaker pegs (½" x 17 ⁄32" tenon) (1) 1" x 4" x 10' p ine board ( I

purchased 12 feet) (1) h inge (1) ba l l of butcher’s twine (1) box of 18 gauge 1¼" brads Regular ol ’ hammer and nai ls Paraffin wax (not grease or oi l ) Wood glue

Tools: Circular saw (possible with

hand saw, but not preferable)

Hand drill Drill bits in sizes 17⁄64"

and 9⁄32" (Most people will have to buy these; common bit sets only go up to ¼")

Hammer Sandpaper (This wheel will

work rough cut, but most people will want to sand it)

Protractor

MATERIALS AND TOOLS

Look over the supply list and see what you may have in your home, workshop, or items your friends may have that would meet the criteria for constructing the wheel. For example, the design I used called for brad nails. In our

ignorance, we bought a box of brad nails, not realizing that they require a nail gun. We do not have a nail gun. And the size of the brads was odd, so finding a non-pneumatic nail gun was difficult.

Odd sizes became a thing while I was building this wheel. The bolt sizes were odd; the drill bits in the plans were not in our

drill bit kit; a fender washer the design called for proved impossible to find unless I wanted to order a huge box of them. If I had to do this again, I would consult some of my engineering

friends or sat down and mathed it out myself to make it easier and less expensive.

NOTES ON CONSTRUCTION

REMEMBER THIS DURING CONSTRUCTION

From the original instructions:

“Having said that, the drilling of this hole is like everything else

in this project: poor craftsmanship won’t keep the

wheel from working.”

Borrowed a fr iend’s table saw (with a laser!) and cut most of my wood pieces.

Some pieces are small and fingers could be lost when using a table saw. I saved those pieces for later.

MEASURE TWICE, CUT ONCE

When you think about i t , ten feet of lumber isn’t al l that much. I f you know someone with a work shop, they may have pieces of 1x4 that you can use.

Otherwise, ten feet of pine is about $8 at Home Depot.

TEN FEET OF LUMBER IS ALL IT TAKES

Make sure to label the pieces. I t would be zero fun to try to figure out what you have later on i f you can’t bui ld your wheel immediately.

LABEL THE PIECES

When your wood glue is the consistency of peanut butter and won’ t come out of the bott le on i ts own (and you don’ t want to buy a new bott le) , a l i t t le creat iv i ty to get i t out .

INGENUITY IS IMPORTANT

Don’t own a pneumatic nai l gun? No need to go out and buy one (plus a compressor) . A good ol ’ hammer and nai ls works just fine for this project.

THERE IS NOTHING WRONG WITH OLD-FASHIONED

Glue and nai l the pieces for the base (that you labeled, of course).

CONSTRUCT THE BASE

Power dr i l ls make dr i l l ing the necessary holes in the wheel assembly so much easier. No need to go old-fashioned here. I f you don’t have one, you probably know someone who does.

POWER DRILL:ESSENTIAL & BEAUTIFUL

I ’m a l i tt le embarrassed to admit that I do not have a protractor in my home. At al l . I t helped that we had a 3D printer in the classroom. 30 minutes later and problem solved.

MAKING ANGLES

Using your handy dandy protractor, measure 30 degree angles on the pieces of the wheel in 3-piece sect ions.

WHEEL:ASSEMBLE!

Arrange the 4, 3-piece sect ions into a circle, maneuvering them into an even-as-possible circle.

AN ALMOST PERFECT CIRCLE

Attach the wheel braces, as centered as possible.

BRACING

The stem of the wheel needs to fit snuggly into the base. In i t ia l ly , my fit was so snug, that the wood was creaking and groaning as I t r ied to wedge the stem into the base. Rather than break anything, I sanded the bottom of the stem to make the stem s l ide into the base snug, wi thout cracking the wood.

SANDING DOWN THE STEM

The stem in the base with some Starbucks to help me power through the construct ion process.

IT’S COMING TOGETHER

The stem and the upper receiver p ieces need to have hole that a l ign. I thought i t was a br i l l iant idea to g lue the p ieces together with a touch of wood g lue, dr i l l the holes, and separate the p ieces. I t helps i f you actual ly remember to separate the p ieces. Even a l i t t le wood g lue can go a long way.

HOUSTON, WE HAVE A PROBLEM…

Instead of one putty knife to pry off the upper receiver, let’s try four…

WHEN ONE ISN’T ENOUGH

Added some table knives to the equation. They didn’t help a whole lot.

EIGHT IS ENOUGH?

I temporari ly gave up on my upper receiver problem (next step: handsaw) and instead attached the hinge to the treadle and the base. The screws for the hinge were a l i tt le long. Maybe no one wi l l notice the smal l holes in the top of the kitchen table.

ATTACHING THE HINGE

Al l of the major components are together. Once the upper receiver problem is fixed, the rest of the assembly should conclude quickly (fingers crossed) and I should have a functional wheel by Wednesday’s presentat ion.

THE SITUATION, AS OF MONDAY, JULY 28