8/27/08 – Assembling Mach 1

Finally the finish is dry, the house is quiet, and I’ve got time to put the Mach 1 back together and give her a whirl!  If you get one of these wheels unfinished, PLEASE learn from my mistake and take CAREFUL notes of where every little spring and washer and e-clip is supposed to go.  I found out the hard way that Mike carefully assembles and calibrates each wheel individually, so one wheel may have two washers where another has three, and so on.  Also, those little springs held on by e-clips?  They can be mighty hard to find when your hand slips as you’re slipping that e-clip back on.  (can we say “projectile).  Several hours and three phone calls to Mike later, and I have her up and spinning.  Some of my trouble, I believe, has to do with the fact that the wheel was assembled in a dry climate, then spent three unfinished weeks sitting around my house in Virginia, where humidity is hoving around 70% (and I haven’t been running the AC the last few weeks either).  That made the wood parts really hold on to the metal, and caused me to have to do a good bit of hammer-banging that might otherwise have been avoided.  I also got one of the last wheels to ship BEFORE the owner’s manual was ready, so I was working without diagrams or directions.    But anyway, I finished, she spins, and I spent the next hour unstressing on my front porch plying up this:

One ply is handspun superwash that changes color at random, rather long intervals, joined with rayon seed yarn and spiral-plied with black wool/nylon.  All 380 unbroken yards weighing 8 1/2 ounces on ONE BOBBIN!  yes, Yes, YES!  That’s what I’m talking about!  EIGHT ounces on ONE bobbin!  Here’s how it looks in a skein:

I could knit with this and get stripes, but I spun it thinking that I might be able to use it on a tri-loom (triangle loom), or a rectangular scarf loom.  I need to figure out which, and what size, I could get from this much yarn, and then built the loom.   Another day.  First I need to spin some more, and put the finishing decorative touches on my new Mach 1 so I can post those pictures tomorrow!