One of the most essential things to know about your spinning wheel is how to replace a worn out or broken drive band. Fortunately replacing a drive band is easy once you know how to do it and what materials make a suitable drive band.

If your wheel uses a poly drive band, keeping an extra band on hand makes good sense as it takes time to order these from the suppliers. If you don’t have one on hand and yours breaks, then cording can be used as a temporary substitute. Use cording that is as close as possible to the diameter of the poly band. Poly drive bands come in the form of a continuous loop so it’s possible that replacing the band may require some simple and minor disassembly of the wheel. Follow the wheel manufacturers instructions for how to replace the poly drive band.

When replacing your drive band with cord, the most important consideration is the diameter of the cord. This affects the amount of friction that exists between cord and whorls and using a different diameter of cording will affect the way the wheel spins.

There are as many opinions on what type of cording works best as there are spinners. Personally, I like an 8/4 linen rug warp for thinner bands, a 6 ply low twist white garden string for thicker bands, or a higher twist white garden string if I want a thicker band that will be longer wearing.

The first step in replacing a drive band is always the same no matter what type of bobbin and flyer wheel you have. Adjust the tension setting on your wheel so that the mother-of-all and the drive wheel are as close together as possible. Drive bands stretch with use and starting with the wheel arranged like this gives you the greatest range of tension possible once your new drive band is in place.

To put a drive band on a single drive, bobbin lead wheel, facing the wheel as if you were going to spin, start at the top of the bobbin whorl go down to the right and come up under the drive wheel on the left and back to the top of the bobbin whorl. Tie the drive band, clip the ends off so they are no longer than ¼ inch and then reset the tension.

For a single drive, flyer lead wheel, follow the instructions as above but use the flyer whorl rather than the bobbin whorl. This is also a good time to check your Scotch tension band for wear. Replace the spring or rubber band if needed, and also replace the line if needed. Fishing line makes a good Scotch tension band but thin cording can also be used.

For a double drive wheel, start at the top of the flyer whorl and go over and the under the drive wheel coming back up under the bobbin whorl. Then go over the bobbin whorl, back over and under the drive wheel and come up under the flyer whorl. Tie off the band and reset the tension. You’re making a figure 8 with the drive band and it will cross once. On Saxony style wheels, the cross will be at the bottom near the table for spinning Z but will move to the top near the flyer for spinning S. For upright wheels, the cross will be to the left of the flyer for spinning Z and will move to the right for spinning S.