As mentioned in a previous blog I had a spinning wheel clean/service job to do. I decided to get it out of the way early so that I could get on with other valley chores.
Here’s a list of the work performed:
- Check and clean bearings
- Tighten back maiden and finial
- Replace 2 missing bobbin bearings
- Replace lazy kate stop
- Re-glue right leg
- Clean all wood and apply light coat of ‘Feed-N-Wax’ where appropriate, polish.
- Add new leaders
- Test spin
Extra work:
- Number bobbins and weigh each one.
All that for a base fee of $30. It cost a grand total of 2 dollars for the dowel to make the lazy kate stop and the whole job took me just under 3 hours so seems reasonable.
Before and after shots. The wheel spins pretty near exactly the same as my Little Peggy – although the ratios are slightly different given my whorls are larger. With Scotch tension on both wheels that doesn’t really make a difference.
The number I added to each bobbin is so that they can be weighed once full of yarn to give an idea how much yarn is on each bobbin. Despite looking identical the bobbins ranged from 1.6 to 1.9 ounces. The Lazy Kate stop was missing so I fashioned a new one from hardwood dowel. It now means when plying, the bobbin won’t slowly work it’s way off the rod at some inconvenient moment.
Given that the wheel was in working condition this service didn’t really take much time. When repairs come into the equation time/money amounts will need to be changed.