Posted by jennifer on Thursday, 21 June 2001, at 3:46 a.m.:
In Reply to: drop spindle posted by Undonestitches on Friday, 19 November 1999, at 4:20 p.m.:
I taught myself to spin on an Ashford drop spindle that sells for about $12, as I recall. It's a pretty heavy one, and the store I got it from gave me a hook to stick in the top (yes, it makes it much easier--I read that a spinner produces about 1/3 more thread per hour with a hook than without). I also recently made a very simple drop spindle to use with flax, which consists of a cd, a chopstick, and some tape. It works great, and I suppose one could vary the weight by adding more cds--free aol cds work great.
Get a wooden chopstick (or any dowell that fits through the cd)--I used the long, chinese-style chopsticks you can get at the gocery store--they have a square cross-section, but it doesn't seem to matter much.
Then get some tape--I used filament tape, because it can be torn lengthwise. Take a half-inch wide strip of the tape, wrap it around the dowell until it's wider than the cd hole, keeping the top edge even and perpendicular to the stick--you want to put this a couple of inches up from the tapered end of the chopstick.
Then slip your CD on top, and wrap more tape, this time keeping the bottom edge even and snug against the top of the CD. Use a craft knife to cut a notch near the top of the stick, and voila! Your very own drop spindle.
The only problem with this spindle is that it easily becomes unbalanced when submitted to the stresses of storage (and to being dropped on the floor, which certainly happens often enough!). However, it is equally easy to readjust. Just eyeball it once in a while to see that the CD isn't crooked.
If you were going to do it with more than one CD, I would suggest sticking your cds together somehow, as you wouldn't want them to spin independently of oneanother and take energy out of your spin.