Gail writes:
<<It may require the fan to turn at 3500 rpm or more, but for spinning
that is overkill. >>
I think there may be some misunderstanding here about what the rpms
really mean.
You can figure out the rpms you spin at quite easily, at least on a
spinning wheel. Determine the actual ratio of your wheel at the
smallest whorl you know you can spin at. Do this by tieing some ribbon
or something to one arm of the flyer. Slowly treadle through at least
one full revolution of the wheel. Count the times the ribbon goes by,
and you know the actual ratio of your spinning wheel.
Now treadle as fast as you can for a full minute, counting your
treadles.
On my Ashford, I can treadle up to 100 times a minute--but it's hard on
my knee. My actual ratio on the smallest whorl is 30:1. Treadling for
one minute, 100 treadles delivers 3000 turns of the flyer, or 3000 rpm.
I can spin to that with ease. So when looking for an electric spinner,
I look first to the motor speed.
An electric spinner at 1500 rpm, unless there's some sort of
accelerating pulley arrangement like a Minor's head on a great wheel,
will only deliver 1500 at best to the flyer. Therefore, it is MUCH too
slow for me and my spinning.
The fellow who sold this spinner assured me no one could keep up with
his motor. I took the roving, and had no difficulty keeping up with the
max speed spinning a yarn that would 3 ply into a sport weight, with
just enough twist to hold it together--but it's not truly 5000 rpm at
this point because the pulley ratio isn't 1:1. I would guess it's about
1:1.5 at this point, but that's only a guess.
It's up to the spinner to decide what her speed threshold might be.
Electric spinners today, for the most part, have motors that deliver
3000 rpm. The Fricke spinner, at 1500, will be very slow for anyone
wishing to spin fine yarns. It's equivalent, assuming a 1:1 ratio on
the pulleys, to treadling a 30:1 spinning wheel at 50 treadles a
minute. My comfortable, relaxed, easy going treadling speed is about 60
treadles a minute.
Why is this important? To most of you it won't be! :) But to those of
us who like to push the limits of our spinning skills, or need to be
serious production spinners, the speed of the spinning devices we use is
of paramount importance. And I think it's good information for any
spinner to have, particularly if she's looking at buying a new spinning
device in a small window of opportunity :) I didn't have time to figure
out if the spinner would meet my needs--but since I had already figured
out the max my Ashford with Lace Flyer would deliver, I knew this
electric spinner would at least speed things up an appreciable amount.
Holly
who does love the process, just loves to make it fast and pain free :)
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