Introduction: Spinning Wheel - Memento

About: Working as a team lead in an AI-based company

A "spinning wheel" is a device for spinning thread or yarn from fibres. It was fundamental to the cotton textile industry prior to the Industrial Revolution. It laid the foundations for later machinery such as the spinning jenny and spinning frame, which displaced the spinning wheel during the Industrial Revolution.

Spinning wheels may be found as motifs in art around the world, ranging from their status as domestic/utilitarian items to their more symbolic role.

The basic spinning of yarn involves taking a clump of fibres and teasing a bit of them out, then twisting it into a basic string shape. You continue pulling and twisting to make it longer and longer, and to control the thickness.

Thousands of years ago, people begin doing this onto a stick, called a spindle, which is a very lengthy process.
The actual wheel part of a spinning wheel doesn't take place of the spindle, instead, it automates the twisting process, allowing you to "twist" the thread without having to constantly do so manually, and also the size of the wheel lets you more finely control the amount of twist. The thread still ends up on a spindle, just as it did pre-wheel.

The wheel itself was originally free-moving, spun by a hand or foot reaching out and turning it directly. Eventually, simple mechanisms were created that let you simply push at a pedal and keep the wheel turning at an even more constant rate. This mechanism has been the main source of technological progress for the spinning wheel, before the 18th century.

Supplies

  • Popsicle Stick (11 cm) [X 20]
  • Base Stand = 10 Sticks (11 cm)
  • Wheels = 6 Sticks (11 cm)
  • Wheel Holding Stand = 2 Sticks (9 cm)
  • Wheel Holding Stand Supports = 8 Stick (1 cm)
  • Axel Stand = 2 Sticks (4 cm)
  • Axel Stand Support = 2 Sticks (2 cm)
  • Wheel handle sticks = 2 Sticks (4 cm)
  • Toothpicks = 4 Nos
  • Glue = As Required
  • Rubber Band

Step 1: Wheel Assembly

Create a wheel by sticking the 3 sticks in a cross pattern (make 2 sets) and stick them with Glue. Once the Glue dries use a small Needle or Drill gun to make a hole on Each stick’s corner (1 cm from Edge).

Put a hole in the centre of the wheel. Connect the 2 Wheel parts with Toothpicks and create a wheel

Step 2: Wheel Holding Stand - Support

Take 9 cm sticks and glue them with 1 cm sticks X 4 Sticks for the wheel support for each stand

Put a hole on the wheel stand’s top-end by leaving 1 cm from the top on both stand pieces.

Step 3: Base Stand

  • Take 10 Sticks (11 cm) and bind them with rubber bands

Step 4: Axel Stand

Take 4 cms, Axel, to stand stick and glue with 2 cm Axel stand support

Put a hole on top of the 4 cm Axel Stand by leaving 1 cm from top Note – The hole should pass through glued sticks (2 and 4 cm Sticks)

Step 5: Wheel Handle

  • Take 4 cms sticks and glue them together. Once the glue dries put a hole on the Handle’s both side by leaving 1 cm Each side

Step 6: Assembly

  • Take a toothpick and connect wheels and wheel stand by passing the stick through the wheels centre hole and wheel stand’s hole and lock it with the handle on the one side. P.S.: Glue only the handle side as the wheel must rotate.
  • Take a Base stand (10 Sticks) and keep it in the centre of the wheel stand and glue it, if required use the rubber bands to bind them together
  • Take the 2 cm Axel stand and put them in between another edge of the base stand and Glue. Once it's dried, use a small toothpick and connect them by passing through the hole and Glue it, the axel will be strong.

Thank you for trying it out!