# spinning wheel walks away



## Caren (Aug 4, 2005)

When I am spinning my wheel moves away. I put down a throw rug that has a rubber back on it but the wheel walks across it and right off the other side! Drives me nuts!

Any ideas on how to stop that from happening? I know it has to be a simple fix but darned if I can figure it out!


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## Marchwind (May 10, 2002)

Get a rug big enough for both the chair you are sitting on and the wheel to be on it wholly. This should help. Which wheel it is that is "walking"?


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## Forerunner (Mar 23, 2007)

Caren said:


> When I am spinning my wheel moves away. I put down a throw rug that has a rubber back on it but the wheel walks across it and right off the other side! Drives me nuts!
> 
> Any ideas on how to stop that from happening? I know it has to be a simple fix but darned if I can figure it out!


Have you tried brushing your teeth a little more vigorously after meals ?
Maybe try switching to a different brand of deoderant ? 

Breath mints ? :shrug:


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## Caren (Aug 4, 2005)

Forerunner said:


> Have you tried brushing your teeth a little more vigorously after meals ?
> Maybe try switching to a different brand of deoderant ?
> 
> Breath mints ? :shrug:


Smartipants!


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## Caren (Aug 4, 2005)

I only have the ashford traditional wheel.


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## frazzlehead (Aug 23, 2005)

Hmm, Traddy's don't usually walk too badly ... I'd say WIHH is onto something - check your positioning and see if you can adjust where your foot goes and how you treadle. Treadling is more like ... like when you are on a bike, and you're already up to speed, and you just have to keep your feet going round and round with the pedals. It's not like when you're riding up a steep incline, PUSHING each foot down ... you are almost just following the treadle as it moves, giving it only the slightest pressure. There's almost no effort involved at all - or there shouldn't be. If you really have to push, your tension is waaaaaaaaaaaay too tight. Back the tension right off, then treadle, just treadle. No yarn. Then put on a long leader and tighten the tension a weeeee tiny bit at a time until the wheel JUST accepts the yarn when you release tension on it, it should not PULL it out of your hand (ever, that's a very rude wheel that yanks the yarn!). 

It may well need a mat (especially on a slippery floor) but it shouldn't be walking off the mat. 

Unless Forerunner is right ...


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## Marchwind (May 10, 2002)

Tight tension and or make sure you have oiled all the moving parts, that can make a huge difference. You would be amazed at how often you really do need to oil the wheel to keep it running smoothly.


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## Caren (Aug 4, 2005)

How do I tell how much tension should be on it? I just went a bought a new bobbin to ply with and I followed WIHH suggestions and the darn thin still tried to run away and by the time I was done plying two bobbins my back and hip hurt! 

I thought this was supposed to be relaxing?

Seems like I am always touching my wheel I can ony treade 5 times before I have to pause and catch the yarn up.

I am waiting for the fun part of this...............


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## frazzlehead (Aug 23, 2005)

Okay, go back to my earlier post.



> Back the tension right off, then treadle, just treadle. No yarn. Then put on a long leader and tighten the tension a weeeee tiny bit at a time until the wheel JUST accepts the yarn when you release tension on it, it should not PULL it out of your hand (ever, that's a very rude wheel that yanks the yarn!).


Take your brake and LOOSEN IT COMPLETELY. Drop the yarn. No yarn in your hand. Just you and the treadle, to start with.

Now, position yourself RIGHT CLOSE to your wheel. Pull your chair up as close as you can get, so that you sit in your chair, feet flat on the floor in front of you, and then you only have to move your foot forward NO MORE than about four inches. Max. Three would be better. Make sure your wheel is not right at a T intersection to your body, it should be pointed a little smidgen offset from right angles - so, put it directly across your body, right angles, three inches from your right toes. Now pivot the wheel so the treadle is still by your toes, but pull the wheel towards the back of your chair about three inches and push the flyer end away from you about three inches. 

Now put your foot on the treadle. ALL the way on the treadle. Now turn the wheel with your hand, and *just keep up* with your foot. No pushing. Just ride the treadle. That's the feeling you are going for. Your foot is doing NO WORK at this point, your hand is spinning the wheel, round and round (as slow as you can manage and still keep the momentum going). 

Since you have the brake off and no yarn, this will work easily. If it does not, your wheel DESPERATELY NEEDS OIL on the axle.

You should, in fact, oil the wheel before you try this anyway. Okay, go do that. I'll tell you more in the next post.


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## frazzlehead (Aug 23, 2005)

Okay, assuming you can get the wheel to turn nicely when you spin it with your *hand*, the next step is to add your *foot*.

Continue twirling the wheel with your hand and very, VERY gently press a little bit with your toes as you feel the treadle come down. Just ... add a wee bit of weight to the foot. Your hand is still gonna turn the wheel, just use a touch of pressure with the foot. 

If you do not feel the wheel respond INSTANTLY to the pressure from your forefoot, MOVE YOUR FOOT ON THE TREADLE. Slide it forward a little, or back a little, and find the sweet spot where the pressure from your forefoot gets a response. The treadle on a Traddy wants you to raise and lower your forefoot, it is an ankle movement, not a stomp or a push or a heel/toe thing, it's like sitting on the chair with your heels on the floor and lifting then lowering your foot without taking your heel off the floor. That motion is what you want.

When you can do this EASILY with your foot, you can stop using your hand to keep the wheel going. Now keep treadling, and keep lightening the pressure on your foot until the wheel stalls. Then start it with your hand again, and add just enough pressure to keep it turning, slowly. Lighten up again until it stalls. That's how you find out how much pressure you need - you ONLY need enough to keep it turning - once it's up to speed, it needs about half a breath more weight than the weight of your foot alone to keep it going, that's all it needs. If it needs more than that, you've possibly got a hardware issue and we need pictures to help diagnose.

Okay, is all this working?


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## frazzlehead (Aug 23, 2005)

If all that is working, now it's time to figure out tension.

Ensure your drive band is on correctly. 

Ensure your brake band is where it needs to be.

At this point, the brake is completely disengaged - it lays over the end of the bobbin but the screwed in thing with the spring is totally loose.

Now take a long hunk of cheap acrylic or something, like three or four metres of it.

Tie the end onto the bobbin, and feed it over the hooks and out through the orifice.

Treadle.

Nothing will happen except you'll get kinky yarn. Good.

Now take the tension knob and turn it ONE QUARTER TURN. No more. 

Treadle again. Probably you still get nothing but kinky yarn. Feel free to treadle backwards for a minute or two if the kinky yarn is getting out of control and unwind it, but it's not a big issue, really.

Now turn it another quarter turn, and treadle. You might now see the yarn being sucked into the bobbin (you are holding the yarn in your fingers but NOT PINCHING it as you do this - just keeping it up off the floor, basically, no more than that). When the bobbin starts to suck in the yarn, you're almost there.

Now, pinch the yarn slightly and treadle to put a bit more twist in, now move your hand towards the orifice. Does the yarn wind onto the bobbin? If not, give one more quarter turn to the tension and try again.

When you can FEED yarn to the orifice (not stuffing it in, not having it yanked out of your hands, it just politely eats it when you move your hands closer) then your tension is where it belongs.

Got it?


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## frazzlehead (Aug 23, 2005)

It'd be good if you could explain this, too:


> Seems like I am always touching my wheel I can only treade 5 times before I have to pause and catch the yarn up.


You mean you have to push the wheel every five treadles to keep it turning, or you have to manually wind on the yarn because you've got no takeup on the bobbin, or ... something I haven't guessed?


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## Caren (Aug 4, 2005)

OK ladies I have saved all of this info in word so I can acess it at all times but I have to work the next 2 days and then on Saturday I go to a fiber festival! Yay me! I am broke but I am still going!.

So good luck.

also if you hear of some crazy ady on the news that shot her spinning wheel.................that would be me....................


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## Marchwind (May 10, 2002)

Caen I can do a road trip to help you if you like. I don't work Fridays and Saturdays.


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## Caren (Aug 4, 2005)

I have to push the wheel ever 5 treadles to keep it moving.

Marchie I have ladies in my area that can help me. It is not unusual for me to hang out at a fiber store on wednesdays. Loks like I will be there wednesday if I can't figure this out on sunday or monday.

I am trying to stay out of the fiber shop. I'm broke!


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## 7thswan (Nov 18, 2008)

Too tight, your drive band is too tight.


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## frazzlehead (Aug 23, 2005)

Okay you definitely have a tension problem!!!!

Undo your tension completely, as above. The wheel should NOT pull fibre from your hand, at all at all at all. Gentle. Slow. It's not a power tool. 

Once you get the tension set properly you'll find the whole experience much more restful. Right now you are spending a tremendous amount of energy fighting your wheel!


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## Miz Mary (Feb 15, 2003)

I have an Ashford Traddy too .... things posted here have help me too , so thank you !!

Here's MY trouble .... 
If I treadle too slow, the footman stops when it's at it's highest spot .... 
If I treadle too fast, the drive band jumps off !! 

I bought a new flyer that has 3 whorl sizes , and even switching to differnt ones does the same thing ...

DH says he thinks there is a worn spot in the footman peg that is catching ....
Then he noticed my Drive wheel is warped :shrug: .......


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## Marchwind (May 10, 2002)

The tension spring on my Traddy had not one bit of stretch to it when I'm using it. If your spring is stretched out at all you have way too much tension. Do as Frazzle suggests and remove all tension. Start at the beginning. Also how tight is your drive band? It should not be stretched so tight that it had no give. You should have only enough tension on the drive band to move the wheel when it treadles.

Do you know how to move the MOA forward and backward and side to side? Miz Mary this may be your problem too. Maybe you need to slide your MOA sideways a bit.


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## 7thswan (Nov 18, 2008)

Miz Mary said:


> I have an Ashford Traddy too .... things posted here have help me too , so thank you !!
> 
> Here's MY trouble ....
> If I treadle too slow, the footman stops when it's at it's highest spot ....
> ...


Can your uprights be adjusted(uprights are what hold the actual wheel). If the uprights are cocked to one side, it will give the illusion that you wheel is warped. This will cause the driveband to jump off.


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## Caren (Aug 4, 2005)

Well I'll be darned! Backing off on the tension worked! She spins like a top!


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## Miz Mary (Feb 15, 2003)

7thswan said:


> Can your uprights be adjusted(uprights are what hold the actual wheel). If the uprights are cocked to one side, it will give the illusion that you wheel is warped. This will cause the driveband to jump off.


It's not "true" he says ..... spindles are loose .... I can make yarn , so it works for me , just not a "cadillac" :happy2:


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## frazzlehead (Aug 23, 2005)

Lots of wheels get a bit of shimmy. If it doesn't throw the drive band, it isn't a problem! And a wee bit of adjustment to the position of the MoA will probably eliminate the trouble. 

Caren ... Yay! Too much tension is a very common problem. See how easy it is when nobody has grabby hands?


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