I designed it on Inkscape and used a laser at a local makerspace to cut it out.
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I started to write the following (“I love McMaster-Carr. Gone to them many times. They we’re quite useful when I was making my wife her spinning wheel.”) in another thread when I saw mention of McMaster-Carr but then thought it may better fit in this thread rather than throw that one off.
Being a knitter for many years my wife expressed interest in spinning her own yarn. She had started learning with a drop spindle but quickly expressed a desire to obtain a wheel. I started searching and researching the option of buying vs building. Then I stumbled on some plans in an old Popular Mechanics. At the time the issue came out you could order the hardware but of course it’s no longer available so I had to come up with my own. (That’s the connection with McMaster-Carr)
Any way, after some planning and scrounging I came up with my own version. It still uses the same spinning method as the drop spindle.
The original plan used a drive belt to connect the two wheels but to reduce complexity and the bother of digging up a suitable belt I decided to just stack the wheels and use friction to drive it. 
This type of spinning wheel is referred to as a “penguin wheel” therefore I went with this paint scheme.
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How cool!
The pain job makes it! Thanks for sharing!
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I would impale myself on that no less than a dozen times a day - but it’s cute as can be as a penguin! 
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I decided to make a retro lamp shade from birch. This is how far I got before realizing it was not going to work. I liked it well enough to put it in the guest bathroom. Apparently it is a hit as wall art because I have a line of buyers.
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The circular geometry works well surrounded by all the right-angles of a room!
Very nice!
Thank you for showing us!
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That is cool as ice!
Why wasn’t it going to work, though?
Honestly I went through several sheets of birch. As delicate as the cuts are I was scared that the weight would cause warping and possible separation. It is 20 inch diameter. I really wanted a slightly exposed bulb but this design was just too open. I opted for the cardboard version instead. I plan decorating the catdboard further with exotic wood veneer. I like using more expensive material with basically throw away materials.
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Wow you are so creative. Its beautiful. Two posts in one day, you guys are sucking me in. :o)
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Wonderful!
The more the merrier, welcome to the party.
Seriously, it’s the individual contributions that make this forum the cool place it is!
We just got a little stronger with your participation.
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Ah, now for the track saw, Domino Joiner, and the brushless EQ sanders. I was bit by the Festool bug about five years ago and it is hard to buy anything else if Festool makes a tool like I am looking for. Right now I keep hoping for my shop vac to die so I can replace it with a Festool Portable Dust Extractor CT SYS.
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Way ahead of you. I already own the tracksaw, 3 lengths of track (two 120cm and one 80cm) and the medium version of the dust extractor.
Sadly, I own a plethora of Bosch Sanders and other brand tools. They are plentyfull good enough. Or so I have to keep telling myself!
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So is your track saw the TS55 or the TS75?
I purchased the TS75 three track happily sawed up many sheets of plywood only to have Festool come out with the cordless versions of the saws about 8 months after I purchased my TS75. With the price I have not been able to justified buying one yet so for the remote jobs I am still dragging along the generator, lots of extension cords and my corded Festool tools.
I did break down and buy the new brushless 6 inch Random Orbit Sander ETS EC150/3. The thing is actually fun to sand with. I normally do not like sanding and when ever possible will attempt to put the larger panels through my SuperMax 19-38 Drum Sander. Since I got the ETS EC150 I find that I am often picking it up instead of using the big sander.
The other brand of tools I lust after is Laguna Tools. Unfortunately they are just to far out of my price range…
Have you seen the new Festool 6 foot tracks? I got to use one at the local Woodcraft shop but have not yet justified buying one to add to my set…
I own the TS55. Don’t mind the cord though. I work in events and always have big generators at my disposal for location work. The rest of the year the tools live in the shop. Outlets everywhere there.
My neighbour actually has a Festool orbital sander and we use each others tools all the time so I’ve had the pleasure. It’s a little powerfull for the finer stuff though…
I had to google Laguna brand tools. They look like some awesome tools right there but I don’t think they have a EU division. Never even heard of these.
6 foot… Let me google that conversion to cm. HA! they sell those tracks up to 5000mm (over 16ft.) I’ve seen custom cut lengths too. I got the two 140cm tracks with the TS55 at a sale. I bought the 80cm one a few weeks ago. It’s much easier to wield that in the shop.
But I’ll be moving my shop within the next year to a far bigger shop. So I might be able to tackle bigger project AND I will have enough space for some serious hardware.
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I decided it was finally my turn to brag a little.
As a mechanical engineer, my show and tell isnt very pretty, but it sure was fun. Some friends and I put together a wall climbing machine. Or a Personal Vacuum Assisted Climber (PVAC)
We were in college and the Army put out a competition for ascending a wall with no grappling hook.
This is what we came up with.
- get a pair of big vacuum cleaning motors
- suck em to the wall
- climb
- put them in a nice white box
We did all the fab inhouse. Including the PVC shell. That was one of my favorite parts. A counselor we had on the project said that the lid would be impossible to vacuum form. And he had spent several years in the industry…
Here is a video of us proving him wrong. 
Finally, here are couple pics of me impersonating Spider Man.
Recently, I made a webpage as kind of a engineering portfolio to help me get a new job. (it worked btw, i highly recommend it to anyone job searching) So here is the link to other projects I’ve dabbled in.
http://www.lee-design.tk/
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Spider man, spider man…
Does whatever a spider can.
Can he swing? Listen bud…
He’s got radioactive blood.
Look out…here comes the Spider Man.
(Since you are likely too young to have heard that song…hit YouTube - look for the 60’s version of the Spiderman Theme song. It’s quite a catchy tune.)
Great job Spidey! 
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Well, now I’m disappointed in the Spider-Man theme song of my childhood. “Spider-Man, Spider-Man, radioactive Spider-Man” as sung by a theremin or something.
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I do like your iron work. Thanks for sharing these projects. Impressive.
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Thanks, I took a class at a local community college. I would LOVE to get into it more. However, living in an apartment complex puts a real damper on pounding iron.
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