Notes on Hubs.

~ Notes on Bike Hubs ~

You may wonder what makes our whirligigs spin.

The answer is a bicycle hub.  A basic front wheel hub is designed to spin well and fast and last a good long time.  I originally repurposed old bike wheels to get their hubs, but when I began teaching workshops and needing so many so often I had to start ordering them new.  I wanted to point out that not all front hubs are the same.  TYhey all should spin and work for a whirligig but the material it's made of an it's dimensions can vary slightly. Aluminum hubs are lighter in weight than steel but this makes little difference as far as the spinning goes.  What does matter is that often a hub is tight and not smooth moving.  Hold onto one bolt end an spin with your fingers.  It should rotate smoothly and easily.

If it doesn't, it may have a little rubber dust cover over the black lock nut.  These aren'y needed for whirligig purposes and they slow down the spin.  Just pry it off with fingers or a flat head screwdriver. (see below).

Next if it still seems tight, put one ends lock nut in a table top vice clamp and with a closed end wrench on the opposite black lock nut turn gradually to the left.  As you do this, continually stop and spin the hub.  Stop  turning the wrench as soon as the hub is spinning smoothly and easily.  If you over loosen the nuts you will notice a up and down wiggle in the hub that can cause the whirligig to vibrate as it spins.  If you experience this vibration in your gig, tighten up the hub slightly.

Happy Spinning!

The Whirligigs of Summer- Part 6

~ The Whirligigs of Summer ~

Part VI

Summer ended on a very fun note with this whirligig made by Margie.  When she started unloading her goodies from the boxes she brought in I started to drool.  Fun and colorful vintage toys and kitchen doodads.  She admittedly wasn't planning on putting her gig outside unless she was having a party so it she did't have to concern herself at all about function and she could just create fun visual eye candy.

This is a picture of some of the items that she didn't use. Margie has enough stuff for multiple whirligigs and I have a feeling I'll see her again for another workshop.  Looking forward to it!

The Whirligigs of Summer- Part 5

~ The Whirligigs of Summer ~

Part V

I just can't help it but when someone brings an item that I haven't seen before I get excited about the whirligig.  In this case it was the tin mold that sits below the enameled coffee pot.  The larger cake pan that the spoons are attached to is pretty interesting as well with its' star like shape.

The little copper Buda bells and rope molds on this gig I definitely hadn't seen before.  The flower petal bowl at the center adds a lot to the look of this whirligig.

The Whirligigs of Summer- Part 4

~ The Whirligigs of Summer ~

Part IV

The two whirligigs shown here are good examples of a color pallet.  Yellow, black and red is a striking choice.  Outdoors they will begin to rust and the colors will fade and soften.  But for now they will spin in the wind showing off their boldness. Brenda, the creator of the whirligig at the top is a super talented Steampunk artist and we used to carry her extraordinary jewelry in our shop. Her friend that created the gum ball machine topped gig below was also an artist and art teacher.  It was great getting the chance to hang out with these cool women and making 2 very cool whirligigs.

The Whirligigs of Summer- Part 3

~ The Whirligigs of Summer ~

Part III (revised)

A record was set in July for the longest distance traveled to take the whirligig workshop at Hutch.  Karen and Frank drove all the way from Southern California just to make whirligigs.  That is amazing!  Karen had been wanting to take the workshop for a couple of years and it finally worked out.  I loved it, and I'm pretty sure they did too.

The Whirligigs of Summer- Part 2

~ The Whirligigs of Summer ~

Part II

The June whirligigs were pretty special.  This is one of my favorites to date and has a story that's a workshop first. The couple that made it are from Gig Harbor, which in itself it pretty funny. They ran a half marathon that morning in Seattle, then drove up to La Conner and built this Whirligig finishing in almost record time (2:30pm). That's fast. They were a super fun couple and they produced a super fun whirligig.  I could use that kind of energy. I'm assuming that this whirligig spins on their Dahlia farm in Gig Harbor now.

The Whirligigs of Summer- Part 1

~The Whirligigs of Summer~

Part I

Tom, Sharon, & Al.

I've been accumulating a bunch of great photos over the past couple of months, due to the great work by the many participants in our whirligig workshops.  Tom, Sharon and Al created their gigs in May and it was a lot of fun as I recall.

This is a good example of how you can use both new and old items together on the same gig.  Eventually being outdoors, everything will look weathered and old.

Old flatware is pretty labor intensive to drill.  A tip is to try to bend the handle using a couple of fingers with gentle pressure.  If it doesn't flex it will probably take a while to drill through.  Also, some materials that are plastics or composites can be brittle when drilling.  I believe the purple plates on the gig above were bamboo and had the tendency to crack.

Sharon had a challenge with her Stainless Mugs.  We can't drill through stainless so it's on my "Don't Bring" list, but we made it work by creating metal straps that wrapped around the handles and attached to the lid of the red tin.  Everyone needs to have one challenge during the process.

Recent whirligig workshop creations

~ Whirligig Creations at Hutch ~

I know that I always say that the last workshop was the greatest to date and the truth is they are all fantastic .  The whirligigs pictured above were made in the July workshop.  I'm always excited about the "stuff" that everyone brings to create their personal wind statement.  Often the funner the item the bigger the challenge but the challenge is fun and thrilling when we make it work.  These folks were into it big time.  Two of them had already planned and prepped many of the components that went on their gigs.  LOVE IT!!!

I also love getting emails from workshoppers after the class is over with questions about new gigs they are now working on.  To think that hutch may be spreading the joy of whirligigs throughout the land puts a big smile on my mug.  If any of my former workshoppers would send me a picture of themselves standing by there whirligig wherever it ended up being installed I would love to create a blog page called "As The Gig Spins".  

The next whirligig workshop is scheduled for Saturday, September 24th.   The October workshop date will be posted soon.