New (to me) Ashford Traditional Weirdness

Creating Yarn: Spinning, Dyeing, etc.
1

Hi there, spinners! I just inherited an Ashford Traditional last night, from a friend who is moving to New Zealand. When I took a look at it this morning in the light, I noticed that there are some very strange things happening with this wheel. I’ve sent the previous owner a PM on Facebook to find out if she’d ever even used it, and if she had, how on earth it had functioned, because…

#1: The wheel is [I]extremely[/I] wobbly in the housing/casing that it goes into. I am likely going to remove all of that when I pick up some wood glue, and a few clamps, and fix the wobble that way (unless there is objection to that here by others who have repaired their wobbly Ashfords in a different manner).

#2: The flyer assembly is sooooooo weird. So weird. On every Ashford traditional I’ve seen, until this one, the brake drive tension knob has been on the other side of the flyer assembly, over by the wheel tension knob. So exactly the opposite of where it is on this wheel. [I]And[/I] this assembly has the hook for the brake drive band on the opposite side. [I][B]AND[/B][/I] there’s no eye hook for the brake drive band.

You can see in the photos that a brake drive band does actually exist. It would [I]seem[/I] that the previous owner had put the brake tension knob on the wrong side, except how does one do that accidentally? There’s no pilot hole for the brake drive tension knob on the correct side. SO CONFUSING! Also, the brake drive does not reach the hook on the side where there shouldn’t be a hook, and there is no spring.

tl;dr Help. Much help. Please. Do I need to just buy a whole new, um, whatever that assembly is called? If so, where? I’ve looked online for that whole part, and while I can purchase some of it separately (a new flyer assembly, a new tension knob, new brake band, etc), I cannot seem to be able to purchase the part that is set up with all of the weirdness on this wheel.

Have any of you wonderful people ever experienced anything like this?

Thank you in advance!

2

no experience with it, just wanted to say ‘hey!’ to a fellow washington state knitter :wink:

3

Hi there! I apologize for not introducing myself in the intro thread before making this post. I got all caught up in the “whhaaaaatttt” that is my new Ashford. :smiley: I’ll go do that now.

4

Looks like you have an older modle Single Drive Traddy, most likely from the early to mid 60’s … based on the simple turned maidens and the leather bearings.

Ashford Traditional Timeline to ID age

Back then, there wasn’t the supplemental spring for the brake band. You can use a stretchy band for the brake band

The hub of drive wheel was screwed together. Since it is that old, I suspect the wood has shrunk a bit and the screws may need to be tightened … if they can.

I’m not sure if you can buy a new “Mother-Of-All” or not

Parts of a Spinning Wheel

eta:
I’m trying to see the spokes of the drive wheel through the MOA. From this view, the drive wheel looks like it is from 1975 or later where as the MOA is from 1964/1965

5

First of all, congratulations on getting you new (to you) wheel. I bought a new (to me) Ashford Traveller about a year ago that was in need of some serious help too! They’re great workhorse wheels.

The good news is that parts are pretty easily found. All kinds of parts can be found at The Woolery. Or if all else fails you can contact the wonderful people at Ashford and they will be more than happy to point you in the right direction!! :yay:

6

Any vendor that sells Ashford wheels also has access to Ashford parts (even if they are not listed on their website).

The Woolery is a great vendor but in all fairness, there are many others just as good such as the Yarn Barn of KS, Susan’s Fiber Shop (<-- my go-to gal!), Mielke’s Fiber Arts (my other go-to gals!), Paradise Fibers, Pacific Wool & Fiber, Earthsong Fibers and many many more!