Here is my home made table swift.

The top of the swift has a lathed ornament that is bored 1/2" diameter, 1-1/2" deep and glued to the dowel rod end. Then there is a free turning ferris wheel held by a 1"x1-1/2" collar which is set by a counter sunk 1/2" wood screw. The bottom ferris is also free and adjusted up and down by the bottom collar with a threaded bolt.

Think of it as a series of X's created by brass rivets. There are 6 of these X's mounted to the top and bottom ferris wheels in a 360 degree orientation. Each one is attached to the top, then the bottom held by #18 wire in the ferris wheels.

 

Notice the ray fleck of maple in the X-sticks (squint a little harder). ;)

 

The ends of the X's that point outward are tied to 6 more X's with nylon string.

The swift is adjusted by the bottom collar and a threaded wooden bolt. This slides up and down to open and close the swift.

The clamp is a wooden block cut like a C with squared throat as seen. A threaded wooden bolt is used to complete the clamp. Tighten by hand. These bolts are first turned on a lathe, then threaded with a jig and router. The main shaft of the swift is 1/2" dowel cut on my Veritas dowel jig.

The bottom of the dowel rod is glued into the clamp.

The finish I used on the swift is 3 coats of 50/50 boiled linseed oil and turpentine. Makes wood smooth as skin and does not seize up moving parts. You can make these as fancy as you like and even make it more rugged. I would suggest leaving it light weight.

Antiques Road Show had a 19th C swift made of whale bone appraised for $12,000. :)

Enjoy.

Comments

endorph

I am enjoying seeing all of your projects - you do beautiful work.

ReedGuy

Thanks endorph. Wood working is my winter pass time. I build most all my own furniture. These projects are gradually filling up an empty room to be used for weaving. This is all helping me understand about weaving to. Plus I have all you folks to ask questions about weaving. ;)

Daniel13

Impressive! Cannot wait for the next idea. Given a free hand, no telling what your young man will create! The law of diminishing returns is at work here – new technology equates to startling new creations – old technology equates to few new creations.

Artistry

Love the swift! Maple is a nice wood, do you make a lot of tools for weaving out of maple? 

Cathie

ReedGuy

Pretty much everything Cathie because of the closed grain. I find birch harder to round edges because it has larger pores in the grain (you can see them on the end of a shaved board). And the swift doesn't have drag like some being sold, so winding pirns and quills is easier than some. Some still like to argue about it, but they have not used mine and I don't care. :D

This was an old post, it looks like a spammer bumped the thread to the top. ;)

theresasc

that is still a really sweet swift!  Well done.