Spin-Well Spinning Wheel

This glorious wheel was made between 1930 and 1946 in Sifton, Manitoba by a blacksmith named John Weselowski.  He based the design on a wheel he had from the Ukraine. The Spin-Well wheels could be bought by mail order for the low, low price of $7.75.  By 1938 John and his brother were able to make 20 wheels a day!  John expanded his business to become a small milling operation called Custom Woolen Mills.  Later on a descendent of his sold the milling equipment to Carstairs, Alberta which is what I know as Custom Woolen Mills now.   Another cool tid-bit of information is that John partnered with  Willard McPhedrain and together they started Mary Maxim.  That's a lot of cool history to come out of a small town.  In 1947 Spin-Well Manufacturing Co. was sold and became known as Made-Well Manufacturing Co. which continued until the 70’s.  

The above info from ​https://archaicarcane.com/workhorse-spinning-with-a-canadian-connection/

The orifice opening is 1/4" in diameter which is larger than many vintage wheels, much larger than my Haldane and my Kromski Sonata is 3/8" so pretty close!  The height of the opening is 29" and it is centered on the wheel which makes it pretty comfortable.

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​The chair frame sets it apart from many other vintage wheels and is easily noticeable.  Although not the prettiest, there is a lot of thought put into this design which makes it very versatile, lightweight and compact.
The wheel diameter is 13.5" and it is 2" thick and made from solid wood slabs, laminated together.  The footman is attached in the centre and uses a crank style motion in conjunction with the treadle to get the wheel spinning.  

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This wheel is a single treadle but you could easily use both feet as it is the width of the frame.  Treadling on this wheel is much different from other single treadles as its motion is more like that of a table sewing machine.  It is very easy to get going, and much easier to keep in motion.  

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One of the awesome bonuses about the Spin-Well wheels is the bobbin size.  5" inner length and 3" whorl diameter.  I am going to spin a large braid and see how much I can pack on.  I don't think I will have trouble with 8 oz. 
This wheel has 3 bobbins; 2 regular and 1 high speed which would be great for plying.
The lazy kate is clamped to the side but can easily be moved and attached anywhere.

The flyer is made from metal and only has one set of hooks on the left hand side.  The width of the arms is 4" which means you can pack even more fibre on the bobbin then ever!
I read this wheel can be either bobbin lead or flyer lead which means that there is even more versatility!  These combined with bobbin ratios adds quite a range which is almost unheard of in most vintage wheels and even some modern ones.

Spin-Well wheels are double drive with one drive band going around the wheel twice.  You might be able to tell that the whorl seen here has 2 ratios which add even more range to this wheel.  The tension is controlled on the back maiden by raising or lowering the height of the back end of the flyer.  Pretty cool!