Ashford Traveller help - bobbin and flyer not turning

[cassin]

Hi. New spinner here.

 

I've got an Ashford Traveller, single-drive. Turning or treadling the wheel does not make the flyer turn, and therefore yarn does not feed through to the bobbin. I think this must be something to do with not having correctly set-up the brake drive, but I have looked online and found pictures which look the same as my set up - I have the nylon brake drive cord over the groove in the far end of the bobbin, through the hook and along to the knob at the near end - not sure what that's called.

 

Any help much appreciated.

 

Thank you.

 

cassin

[Amy]

Cassin, hopefully some of our spinners will come along and have an answer for you.

 

Have your tried contacting either the company you bought the wheel from or Ashford to see if they can help you figure out what's going wrong?

 

The Ashford website has a bunch of FAQs and Assembly Guides that might help, too.

[cassin]

Thanks, yes, I've been through the Ashford site. I can't easily contact the person I bought the wheel from but I could try contacting Ashford directly. I'll give that a go.

[MullersLaneFarm]

The knob is called the tension knob.

 

You do have the drive band on from the drive wheel around the flyer whorl? If not, start there. (hey, it's been known to happen!)

 

Does the flyer & bobbin turn without the brake band on? If it doesn't, make sure your flyer/bobbin is sitting straight between the maidens. If you're good there, you may have to raise the mother-of-all using the adjusting knob (right next to the front maiden) to give the drive band enough grab of the flyer.

 

Do you have 1 (preferably 2 springs) on the brake band? There should be a spring at the end of the brake band. The band goes over the bobbin whorl (put the larger bobbin whorl to the back), through the hook (attached to another spring if you're using 2 SPRINGS), and threaded in the tension knob.

 

It doesn't take much turning of the tension knob to get the fiber to draw onto the bobbin.

 

Attach a good length of old acrylic yarn to your leader. Start treadling with NO tension on the brake band and turn your tension knob no more than 1/8 - 1/4 turn until the yarn starts to pull on to the bobbin.

 

don't know if you have this, but it is a good reference. Check pages 6 & 7.

 

Let me know how it goes for you

[MullersLaneFarm]

Been thinking about this over night. If it is your leader that is not winding on, it may be that your leader yarn isn't tight on the bobbin and is just slipping. If this is the case, either tie the leader on more securely or wind the leader around the bobbin a few times.

 

Also make sure that your yarn isn't caught up in one of the hooks or wrapped around the flyer shaft.