The jumbo flyer for my Sonata came today! Wow, it’s enormous!! I have 4 bobbins of singles just waiting around to be plyed, so I installed the new flyer and took off.

First some pictures, click if you want to see bigger ones:

To get this set you you just take off the regular flyer and remove the front maiden. The new front maiden is secured and the new flyer and bobbin slip in as the originals do. Mine was quite a tight fit. There is a leather bushing as on the regular flyer and you oil the orifice through the top of the maiden, again just as you do for the regular set up.

At first I thought I had a defective model. It was excruciatingly difficult to treadle, no matter how I adjusted the tension on the drive band. And I couldn’t get the flyer to move at all on the higher ratio. I was quite upset to say the least. I went ahead and took it all apart again, to be sure I hadn’t messed something up. It was still very difficult to treadle. I then oiled the fire out of everything that could possible have oil put on it. The leather bushing is very large and it was dry as a bone.

Treadling became a bit easier, not great, but better. I went ahead and oiled again and started plying. After about 20″ I oiled again. Now it was really working much better. I noticed that the more I used it the better it got. Now, after many oilings and using the new set up for about 2 1/2 hours, it is just fine. I think I ran into the “break in” period. I’m quite happy and satisfied. This puppy will hold lots and lots and lots of yarn!!

So all in all, I’m quite happy with this new spinning toy. There is certainly a huge difference in the size of the bobbins and it will certainly hold a lot more yarn, which will be wonderful when plying. Also, the orifice is quite large and the hooks are very big too. This, along with the lower ratios, will be wonderful for plying thick and novelty yarns.

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