Wednesday, February 20, 2008

Part of the enjoyment of spinning is that you get to look at a piece of Beautiful Fiber Equipment. Furniture. Art. Whatever. The Danish Oil treatment (Watco "Natural" color Danish Oil, two coats) went very well, and my wheel is drool-worthy again.

This is the before shot. Not too bad; a little dull, but not horribly so. It certainly gets the job done.



The most noticeable improvement was on the drive wheel hub. It went from looking very very dried out and dull:



To fabulous:



The whole wheel was like this. I didn't even realize how dull it looked until I saw the improvement. The walnut areas really pop now,



the maple and walnut colors became richer and the contrast increased,



and the whole wheel has a beautiful luster now.



I mentioned in my last post that I did some tweaking and repair on the wheel to improve its performance. This involved taking out the three large bolts in the back upright, so that I could move around the walnut insert that's between the back legs. I was able to align this walnut piece and the smaller swinging piece on the inside that carries the crank in a brass bearing, so that the drive wheel now sits level and square to the frame, and the crank doesn't rub on the wood of the back walnut piece. I tightened the screws on that swinging piece so the drive wheel doesn't wobble anymore, either. It was fiddly, but it now spins almost perfectly silently, and very smoothly.



The second improvement was to replace the tension screw on the top of the wheel.



Somewhere along the line, Schacht switched from using a white plastic screw to the black metal one. It is a vast, vast improvement. The plastic one flexed as I spun, just from the motion of the flyer, and made the metal flyer support rattle annoyingly against the wood. I jimmied it with paper shims, which stopped the noise somewhat, but that made it hard to adjust the tension, as the paper would slip. I wish I could take the wooden knob from the old one and put it on the new one, but it's not that big of a deal. You can really see how much the maple has darkened as it aged!

This is the serial number plate that every Schacht Matchless wheel has:



If you look closely, you can see that the numbers read 082588 8. This means that my wheel was made on August 25, 1988, and it was the eighth one made that day. Twenty years old, this year. It was coming off the production line as I was preparing for my senior year of high school.



Ready to spin, once the oil finishes drying overnight and I put the drive band back on. My wheel and I are very happy today.

7 comments:

Leigh said...

I'm sorry to hear that you and Emma have been sick. But the wheel is a real work of art! Lovely!

Jackie said...

Sorry that you have been sick. We are slowly heading that way. Winter can't end soon enough for me.

And good for you fixing your own wheel! Nice guy at customer (dis)service! We all have a couple of hundred dollars kicking around.

bspinner said...

Your Schacht wheel looks great. I'm off to the hardware to get some oil to clean mine up. I have two. One is left over from a no longer function guild and one is mine. The number on the one I purchased is 062488 which I sent back to Schacht and had converted to a double treadle. I hate to admit that neither wheel is being use. I have an electric spinner which I love and a couple of Ashfords to take to workshops and demonstrations.
Thanks for sharing all your information.

gtr said...

Wow... I'm jsut a wanna-be spinner and I'm drooling over the beauty of that lovely item.

Valerie said...

I am the original owner of the same wheel, who's birthday is 12/20/88 1.
I've adjusted the walnut center piece a time or two. Had to replace the threaded tension screw once when it was in a small accident which knocked the knob off the the threaded part. However my replacement is still the nylon one. I'll have to remember that the metal one is an option.
My flyer is kind of "crazed" and I've been thinking about replacing it or getting a wooly winder for it.
Thanks for the post. My wheels should be getting a tune up soon also!

Jennifer said...

Gorgeous!! And I REALLY wanted a schacht but had to settle for a lendrum. I'm still loving the spinning though!

Wool Therapy said...

Thank you SO much for posting this! Was just able to readjust my walnut piece!! Perfect!