BOBBIN BOY

THIS PAGE HAS THREE PARTS.

THE FIRST EXPLAINS WHO WE ARE & GIVES CONTACT INFO.

THE SECOND HAS ALL THE INSTRUCTIONAL VIDEOS/ALBUMS.

THE THIRD HAS RESTORATION & DIY INFO.

 

PART I: WHAT IS BOBBIN BOY?

Alan & Milissa Dewey are "Bobbin Boy", a husband & wife team based in Asheville, North Carolina. Alan is a master woodturner from Yorkshire & London, England, and has worked with antiques & antiques restoration for nearly 30 years. Milissa is a PhD educated historian, a journeyman woodturner, and also has worked in the fiberarts for over 20 years.

- How to find us: Bobbin Boy

- How to contact us: BobbinBoyMail@gmail.com

This will route you to an email processor that will send the email to us. Please note that due to the email wars between Google and Yahoo, those with Yahoo-based accounts may experience difficulties getting mail to or from us. We cannot help this, and deplore it, but wanted to give you a heads up. We ourselves have had to switch to gmail as a consequence.

- How to estimate costs & know what to send to us: Prices & Procedure

 

PART II: SPINNING & OTHER FIBERARTS SKILLS

If you have a question about technique, history, or repairs that is not answered here, pop us a note! If we can do what you need to know how to do, we will make a video for you.

- hand spindles (drop & otherwise)

• the basics with a bottom whorl (much of this applies to any drop spindle)
• how to tie onto a bottom-whorl drop spindle
  

- general info useful for most flyer-based wheels (modern & antique), especially double drive

• getting started on a spinning wheel
• starting to spin on a double drive system wheel
• practising long draw technique
• rock-bottom plying info
• about leather washers and different types of whorls
• leather bearings on spinning wheel maidens
• double drive system wheels: putting on a new drivecord
• double drive system wheels: tips for easier tensioning
• "Help! My bobbin won't draw the thread on!" double-drive spinning wheel start-up process & trouble-shooting
  
  • Country Craftsman wheels
    • making CC bobbins
    • testing our high-capacity bobbin on regular flyer & low-speed whorl
      • more on the large capacity bobbin & slow whorl
    • about leather washers and different types of whorls
    • high-capacity bobbins of maple
    • distaff assembly, top part
    • full distaff assembly replication
      
  • Canadian production wheels
    • fixing the uprights and other problems on my Vezina CPW
    • getting my game on with a Charles Vezina CPW, circa 1915
    • Annette's CPW by Oellet: spinning again
      • "there are no shortcuts": getting Annette's Oullet wheel back on its feet
    • tips on handling the CPW drivecord whilst changing bobbins
      
  • Finnish wheels
    • Judy's Finnish wheel when it was called "The Smurf": initial restoration
    • the cleaning of the Smurf
      
  • Louet
    • tending to a circa 1994 Louet "Exerciser" wheel
      
  • ornamental wheels
    
    For the record, we do not use the acronym "SWSO" ("spinning wheel shaped object") to denote wheels that were meant to be decorative rather than functional. We feel this term is incirrect historically & also derogatory. So we use the term "ornamental wheel". Some of these can be pushed into being working wheels, for they are extraordinarily close to being able to spin anyway.
    
    
    • making an ornamental wheel into a working wheel
    • a refurbished ornamental wheel for Maria & Kostas

 

- great / walking wheels

• general setup
• putting on the direct drive spindle + drivecord + tensioning + beginning to spin
• practising long draw technique
• setting up a great wheel
• basic alignment, tensioning, and spinning
• putting on the direct drive spindle + drivecord + tensioning + beginning to spin this may be our best video on GW spinning
• making a quill for the spindle and getting started
• how do you control the draft with just one hand?
• Minor's Head for a great wheel: how to assemble & how it works
• Introducing...The Dewey Doubler! Alan explains his & Milissa's invention for the Great Wheel, which has a spindle that can be direct driven as well as accelerated with an additional pulley as you would with a Minor's Head / other antique accelerator.
  • How to use the Dewey Doubler
  • Granny Grier Great Wheel in Tasmania: custom-designed direct drive spindle with accelerator option
    • video of the newly-designed direct/accelerator assembly being tested
• making leather spindle bases
• Minor's Head for a great wheel: how to assemble & how it works
  • restoring a GW Minor's Head
• Lynette's great-grandmother's wheel: spinning again
  • more about this great wheel restoration for Lynette
  • big album of "before" pics of Lynette's wheel
• new maiden and direct-drive spindle for Benjamin and his "Anastasia"
• making a whorl for a Great Wheel spindle

   

- looms

• Lazarus the Loom: restored Harrisville Designs 4H/4S, 36"
  

- tools & toys

• skein winding on an antique skein frame
• orifice hooks
  
  

PART III: RESTORATION & DIY HOW-TO

- at home without specialized equipment

• what you can do with at-home tools
• filling cracks, checks, and shakes in wood
• hemping joins for stability: general idea
• hemping a wobbly wheel upright
• easy way to cut strips of leather
• making your own bobbin winder
• using a homemade lazy kate, bobbin winder, and reeling board
• using your homemade bobbin winder as a spinning wheel
  
  

- in a woodturning shop (i.e. you probably need a lathe)

• basic setup for making spinning wheel bobbins
• making bobbins
  • making more bobbins
  • even more bobbins
• making a flyer and repairing chips
  • another flyer
• bobbin AND flyer repairs
• making bushings for bobbins
• fixing the uprights and other problems on my Vezina CPW
• full flax wheel distaff assembly replication

 

 

 

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