I glanced at the plans for the diameter measurement, found a suitable piece of basswood and cut out a pair of circles. Not having done anything on the scroll saw for a while, I decided to "fancy up" the spool cheeks with a scrollwork pattern:
After I drilled and cut one of these I wanted to see if it looked OK next to the cylinder, but when I held the two together, something didn't look quite right. I looked at the plans again and realized that I had glanced at the wrong measurement - I cut my circle at 3 3/4" diameter (spool wheel diameter) instead of the proper diameter of 4 1/4". This threw me off, as I now had to re-think what I would use for material since my basswood was only 4" wide.
I tried a piece of plywood, but didn't like the way the thin outer ply wore off when I sanded/chamfered the edge. I figured I might just sand off the whole thin outer ply, but when I did, the piece started curling. Next I tried gluing two pieces of basswood together side-by-side, but the joint seemed too flimsy. Finally I found a supplier in downtown L.A. who carried basswood in 1/8" x 6" strips, so this is what I ended up going with. Since I had to wait for the store to open the next day, I started work on the interior parts of the spool, and came up with a contraption to lock the spool to the shaft:
The locking mechanism consists of a flat piece of brass, a t-nut and a bolt, plus a screw to hold the brass piece in place. I put this into a hardwood circle to fit inside the center of the cylinder. Basically, the bolt passes through the paper hook hole and pulls the t-nut and plate tight against the spool rod. This gives me an easily accessible way to make side-to-side adjustments in the spool position, as I only have to loosen the bolt with a blade tip screwdriver, slide the spool over, and re-tighten the clamping bolt. I'll probably grind a flat spot on the middle part of the shaft to ensure a more reliable lock.
After getting the 6" basswood, I made a new pattern, and modified it down from 8 sections to 6, and changed the rectangular cutouts a little to make it easier and quicker on the scroll saw:
After they were cut, I sanded and stained the cheeks and glued them to their internal cylinder ends. Here's a pic of them clamped together back-to-back as the glue sets with the spool shaft in place to keep everything aligned:
After staining and shellacking (1 coat so far) here's what the spool looks like:
For the paper roll hook, I took a small brass cup hook and cut most of it off, then bent it and screwed it in place.
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