PumpkinKnits

Thursday, December 08, 2005

Wheel Assembly and Ass Kicking Hat

A question answering post:

Several of you have asked how the battle with the Brioche Hat goes. I did email Cate, and she informed me that her ever fashion-conscious 3 year old nixed the idea of ear-flaps for her hat, so Cate's brioche hats were her own creation, using tips from EZ's brioche hat in Knitting Without Tears. Which is knit flat. So, the Brioche Helmet Hat and I called a truce, and I am knitting it flat and it is going swimmingly and looks quite nice.

and....

Rosa asked me a very good question about my wheel assembly process:
"Did you set up your unfinished wheel and test it out before you stained it? The staining seems like a lot of work, and there are an awful lot of parts to set up, test, then disassemble, stain, and reassemble. I've read other blogs where their Louets had issues and had to be sent back for new ones."

I did think to do this, but I am a horribly impatient person, and it was hard enough for me to stomach the thought of waiting several days while I stained and finished. I am also not terribly wise, and didn't even think to ask the question of Adrian. Future buyers might want to get an answer to the question "will you accept a wheel for return that has already been finished by its owner" before deciding how to proceed after reading my opinions below.

So, I did all the finish work without any pre-assembly at all, trusting and hoping that my time would not be wasted. The thing is, you would not be able to disassemble this wheel once put together with any ease at all. There are steps that have you gluing wooden peg fasteners, and several bits of hardware that are pretty permanently attached in places.

If you pre-assemble this wheel, I would say you'd be stuck putting the finish on it as it stands whole for the most part. While that is far from an impossible task, I know I always find it much easier to get an even and professional-looking finish on each piece as it lays flat, not having to worry about getting any finish on hardware bits or dabbing into corners where two pieces meet.

Hope that helps all you "louet S17 kit" google searchers out there too (I've been getting tons of hits on that these days!)

3 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

I wouldn't have thought of testing it first, either. I'd have faith in the product!

10:13 AM  
Blogger Unknown said...

Thanks for the response. It makes a ton of sense to me know; especially with the gluing of parts. Happy spinning.

12:25 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I never would have had the patience to test the wheel first, either. Good thing it works like it should. Glad to hear that you solve the problem with the brioche hat. I can't wait to see how it came out!

2:40 PM  

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