Make a Simple Drop Spindle - PEP BB textile.straw.spin.spindle

Here is my submission for the Textiles - Straw - Make a Simple Drop Spindle BB.

To document the completion of the BB, I have provided the following:
- the materials are starting with
- an in-progress photo (drilling a hole or assembling the spindle)
- the finished spindle

A dowel, a toy wheel, an eye screw


Grab a pencil sharpener and taper the top and bottom of the dowel
Grab you pliers and open up the eye screw a bit

Drill the Toy Wheel with a bit the same size or slightly smaller than your dowel


Predrill the end of the dowel for the eye screw
Slide the wheel on the dowel (I did not use any glue - it is a pressure fit)
Screw the opened eye screw into the dowel


Spin a bit - I'm pleased with how it spins

For inspiration or to add your favorite, please check out this Spindle Post.

I made this spindle a few years back, so didn't take a huge number of photos, but hopefully it's enough!

I decided to copy the shape and size of a historical spindle from Scandinavia (can't remember which find it was, and it seems I didn't keep any notes other than a reference image which is now turning up no reverse image search results!). The spindle itself is made from Pittosporum wood, which is a NZ native which is lovely to work with, relatively strong, resistant to splitting, and easy to get a hold of when folks are trimming their hedges. The spindle was turned on an electric lathe, and finished with hand tools (carved hooks into both ends for ease of use). The spindle whorl was carved from a piece of limestone I picked up at a beach. I severely blunted a chisel, clogged my rasp, and damaged the chuck of my hand drill working this piece of stone, but I felt pretty good about it in the end. It's relatively balanced, and spins alright. I had to seal it with grapeseed oil to prevent it from shedding chalk everywhere.

It works fine to spin up a bit of yarn! I will admit that I've generally stuck to the wheel as it's faster, but I often think of a former coworker who'd knit or use the drop spindle during meetings as a way of 'getting at least one thing done!' during time that sometimes didn't seem very productive.

My kids always want to play with my spindle. So, I made them each their own spindles. I must say, I love the large wheel on these, as I can get it spinning and it spins long enough for me to draft a few times. (Yes, I couldn't resist playing using with their toys tools).

I used a wooden dowel, wooden circles, hide glue (gelatin+water) and a lot of sanding!

The hide glue is working very nicely. I mixed it with a little sawdust from all the drilling and sanding. I've accidently dropped (and once flung) the spindle across the floor, and it's held up well. I think it will hold up well against my children's use of them, too!

I figured if medieval kids could have spindles and yarn for toys, mine could, too!

Simple drop spindle BB submission

This evening I made a drop spindle. I am currently processing some gleaned wool and wanted to make one to spin it, once I'm done carding. I've yet to finish processing it but, after spending some time on here, I noticed that there were BBs for this process and so here I am.

I used a piece of alder that I'd harvested from the local woodlands to make the whorl. I cut two chunks off of this - I wasn't sure yet which weight I wanted to use - and drilled them to 7mm. The spindle is made from a piece of commercial dowel that I had lying around, it is 7.7mm and, with a bit of persuasion, I managed to seat the whorl onto this. The brass hook I had in a box of "bits that will be useful" (and it was!)

No glue was needed for this build.

When my wool has been carded I will update this post/add another reply and submit it for certification.

Oh great, thanks! I was waiting to spin a few yards of wool with it as I thought this was a requirement. I am intending to use it when my wool is ready anyway - and I'll be submitting that as another BB.

Yep! This BB is just for the spindle making, so I used one of the magic staff buttons to turn your post into a BB post and certified it for you. I look forward to seeing the yarn you spin!

So, the spindle works! I'm still pretty bad at using it (and I think the wool that I gleaned is pretty rough with a very "short staple") but I've managed to get some lumpy, chunky yarn. I'm going to continue practicing before I try for the other BB. I think perhaps I am going to need to buy some fleece to learn with.

Luke Mitchell wrote:So, the spindle works!

Congratulations!  🎊

Here we go.  I submit this (the spindle is made and tested in the first 1 min of the video, but stay tuned to the end to see cute chicken)

I have made a drop spindle
My dad and I made 8 spindles in one night out of dowels, a piece of wood which we cut circles out of, and small hooks using a drill, sandpaper, an orbital sander for speed, and the drill attachment for making a hole for a doorknob.
They have no glue, instead we sanded down the dowel a bit and with some effort it fit in the drill hole so that it is  stuck like if it was glued
I don't have very good pictures of the process, but hopefully these are enough to show what we did.
Forgot to add: we also used a dremel to cut the little slice out for the yarn

I've never spun before. How obvious is it? Thanks to the permie who sent me some fibers.

To complete this BB, the minimum requirements are:
 -  make a simple drop spindle
 -  it can be a top whorl spindle or a bottom whorl spindle (it can even be a Turkish spindle)
 -  spin a few yards on your new spindle to test it

To document your completion of the BB, provide proof of the following as pictures or a video (less than two minutes):
- the materials are starting with
- an in-progress photo (drilling a hole or assembling the spindle)
- the finished spindle

I cut the dowel and wheel a week ago but couldn't find my sandpaper.  I do have a roll of sandpaper I use for work.  
It worked well for this job.  I'm still fiddling with it to practice...this is not intuitive to me.  lol