Using only bushing bearings of bronze-steel, wood-steel, and leather-steel available in 1500, a spinning wheel using DRS can run at 4,000 rpm on a sustained basis. This is based on multiple 6 and 8 hour trials.
In contrast, contestants using spinning wheels at SOAR spinning contests operated their spinning wheels at ~ 500 rpm for 15 minute race periods.
It is clear that a motivated spinner that understands the craft can spin 8 times faster than the average wheel spinner in a SOAR spinning contest. In the 2009 contest, the spindle spinners spun 2.4 times faster than the wheel spinners. However, a motivated spinner that understands the craft and has an appropriate wheel can spin 3.3 times faster than the spindle spinners can spin for 15 minutes, then the wheel spinner can continue spinning at that same rate for another 7.75 hours, so this is not at all a fair comparison.
Working with a wheel running at 4,000 rpm, a spinner circa 1500 could spin about a million yards per year of worsted single with a grist of 10,000 yards per pound. That would be about 2 pounds of yarn or 40 hanks per week. Many spinners would require between 44 and 48 hours of to spin 40 hanks, so it would be a long, hard week. Twenty -two hanks of 40s or or 48 hanks of 10s would be a similar amount of labor.
With that, I am moving on to ball bearings, and other marvels of the 20th century. With ball bearings the wheel is quieter at 4,500 rpm than it was with bronze bushings at 3,500 rpm.
In contrast, contestants using spinning wheels at SOAR spinning contests operated their spinning wheels at ~ 500 rpm for 15 minute race periods.
It is clear that a motivated spinner that understands the craft can spin 8 times faster than the average wheel spinner in a SOAR spinning contest. In the 2009 contest, the spindle spinners spun 2.4 times faster than the wheel spinners. However, a motivated spinner that understands the craft and has an appropriate wheel can spin 3.3 times faster than the spindle spinners can spin for 15 minutes, then the wheel spinner can continue spinning at that same rate for another 7.75 hours, so this is not at all a fair comparison.
Working with a wheel running at 4,000 rpm, a spinner circa 1500 could spin about a million yards per year of worsted single with a grist of 10,000 yards per pound. That would be about 2 pounds of yarn or 40 hanks per week. Many spinners would require between 44 and 48 hours of to spin 40 hanks, so it would be a long, hard week. Twenty -two hanks of 40s or or 48 hanks of 10s would be a similar amount of labor.
With that, I am moving on to ball bearings, and other marvels of the 20th century. With ball bearings the wheel is quieter at 4,500 rpm than it was with bronze bushings at 3,500 rpm.
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