Kevin Hansen - Electronic Spinner Maker Extraordinaire

One of the best things about the electronic spinner retreat was access to the master - Kevin Hansen, the maker of the miniSpinner.  All the participants of this retreat had a miniSpinner or was in the process of buying a miniSpinner.  If you didn't have one, there were loaner models to use for the classes.


I think I counted at least 13 miniSpinners operating in class with a few on display for purchase.  The exotic woods were extraordinarily beautiful and I was tempted to purchase one of the Padauk wood ones.  The other awesome thing I noticed was that even with all the miniSpinners operating, it was still quiet enough to hear Judith MacKenzie speak (she is very soft spoken).  All the ambient noise was not any louder than a room full of treadle wheels and I think quieter than some gatherings I have been to.


Kevin spent the morning with us on the first day talking about his building philosophy and his concerns about warranty.  He engineered the miniSpinner to be problem free and he demonstrated how we could change the brake band of the miniSpinner.  I was not fast enough to grab my camera since I was in awe over the design so I will try to recreate that video with the notes that I was taking.  I'll post that video at a later time.


Kevin also stated that he has exhaustively tested the springs for the brake band and he has found one that is easier to handle.  The new miniSpinners come with the new spring, but the older models had a longer stiff spring.  You can purchase the new spring assembly from him for $7.50.


Here is a photo comparing the two springs.  The top one is the longer stiffer one and is good for plying, the bottom one is the new more flexible spring and is very good for fine lace spinning but also is good for overall spinning.  

Kevin also discussed the Woolee Winder since most of the miniSpinners are ordered with one.  I was the only one in class with the original Ashford sliding hook flyer that he no longer carries as quite a few were returned in the beginning.  If you don't purchase the Woolee Winder model, you will receive the standard Ashford flyer with the hooks.


Here is my miniSpinner (number 40) that I purchased early on.  I think someone stated that they are numbering in the 500 range now.  The Hansens are headed down under in a few weeks and hopefully production will increase after they spread the word.

I took a couple of videos of the Woolee Winder disassembly for cleaning and reassembly after cleaning.  It was my first time doing instructional videos so the start and stop points are not very clean.


Here is the video of Kevin disassembling the flyer for cleaning.

Here is the video of Kevin reassembling the flyer after cleaning.

Kevin also spent some time troubleshooting some of the miniSpinners.  I'll try to take some video of a few of those areas for later too.