Homemade Charkha spinning wheel

This is one of my latest projects. After looking around a while for some info on cotton spinning and finer fiber spinning, I decided on making a charkha. Here are some links for info on charkhas:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spinning_wheel

http://gossamerstrandsfiber.blogspot.com/2006/05/charkha-or-charka-spinning-wheel.html

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/charkha/

There are several different types of charkhas, a lot of them being sold as "book charkhas" in which they fit inside of a box and have a double wheel arrangement for the drive of the spindle. And then there is the upright, which is a little larger, and usually only uses a single pulley to drive wheel arrangement in order to turn the spindle. For convenience sake, I chose to construct the latter type.

My goal was (as it usually is) to make the wheel as inexpensively as possible, with as many salvaged parts that I could that were readily on hand. The spindle consists of a US #2 knitting needle, attached to a pulley that came from and old cassette player. That pulley is driven by the main wheel, which is made from two 7" diameter wood clock faces that were bought in a craft store. The two pieces were fitted face to face so that there was a groove for the drive belt to sit in. The spindle is held in place by tension from the pulley arrangement, so that I can simply remove the drive belt in order to remove the spindle and collect the spun yarn on a niddy noddy or another bobbin, etc., or I can leave it on the spindle and ply from it by using the old "knitting needle in a shoebox" method. Either way, it's very portable and spins some very fine yarn easily.

I will most likely change some of the features, such as the handle that is attached to a freely spinning one. And since I've just made it, I'm sure that some kinks will have to be worked out as for the tensioning and drive arrangements, etc.

Below are some pictures, and I apologize for the low quality of them.

I've also made a Mother Marion spinning wheel, which is a supported "kick wheel" that I will get some picks of up at a later time, perhaps. It spins quick as well, but is a bit of a workout to spin the wheel with the foot for long periods of time.

So let me know what you think, and if you have any suggestions of would like to share any of your experiences, feel free.