SpinOlution Whorl Generations and What Ratios Each One Gives
SpinOlution has used four generations of whorl since the first wheels were built, and the ratios changed with them. A wheel from 2011, a wheel from 2019 and a wheel bought new today can all be the same model and still spin at different speeds in the same drive band position. This page tells you which generation you own and gives you the published ratios for it, wheel by wheel and flyer by flyer.
It is written for owners of any SpinOlution wheel of any age, and for anyone buying a used one. If you are shopping for a drive band, a bobbin or a replacement flyer head, start here, because the whorl generation decides what fits.
How to tell which whorl you have
The whorl is the stepped pulley on the flyer head that the drive band rides in. Look at what it is made of.
| Generation | Era | What the whorl looks like | Other tells on the wheel |
|---|---|---|---|
| Wooden Whorl | 2006 to 2013 | Turned wood, matching the wheel | Wooden flyer pegs and a non-magnetic flyer. If your bobbin does not swap by sliding off a magnetic orifice bar, you are on this generation. |
| Corian Whorl | 2013 to 2017 | Solid surface material, a dense stone-like plastic, visibly not wood and not metallic | Black nylon flyer pegs, and orifice bars keyed so they cannot go on upside down. |
| Golden Whorl | 2016 to 2024 | Brass or gold toned | The manufacturer describes the Golden Whorl rollout as complete in 2018, with every wheel in the line updated to it. |
| 3D Printed Whorl | 2023 to present | Printed PETG. Black from 2023 to 2025, birch tone from 2026 onward | The printed layer lines are visible up close. The birch tone change was cosmetic only. |
The date ranges overlap on purpose. A wheel could also be updated to a newer whorl later in its life. So the material in your hand is the answer, not the year you bought the wheel.
Two more notes that catch people out. Some older wheels have a two material whorl, with the largest steps in wood and the smallest one or two in metal, which is normal for that era and not a repair someone made. And a Bee wheel can carry any of the four generations, which is why the correct drive band for a Bee depends on the whorl and not only on the model. If you are not sure what you are looking at, send us a photo of the flyer head and we will identify it.
How to read a SpinOlution ratio
SpinOlution labels each drive band position with a letter and a number, and the notation is not explained in the guides that use it. Here is what the letters mean.
- H is the head whorl, the stepped pulley on the flyer head. H1 is the largest step and the slowest. Higher numbers are smaller whorls and faster ratios.
- A is the accelerator whorl, on wheels and setups that have one.
- B is the lower band placement.
- L and R are the lower left and lower right wheels, on the Bee models only.
Their own way of putting it, worth memorising: "Just like ratios, the smaller the whorl the larger the number."
On an accelerated setup you are combining positions, a head whorl plus an accelerator whorl plus a lower band placement, so a handful of parts produces a dozen or more speeds. On those setups the position labels are not in speed order. Every accelerated list below is printed slowest to fastest instead, because that is the order that is useful at the wheel.
The ratio tables, wheel by wheel
Every table below is taken from that wheel's own published ratio guide, and every one is labelled with the generation it describes. Where a set is shared across flyer sizes, the guide says so outright and we have said so too. "Med" is the guides' own abbreviation for medium.
Monarch, Golden Whorl (2016 to 2024)
The 8 oz, 16 oz and 32 oz flyers all use one shared set of five.
| Position | H1 | H2 | H3 | H4 | H5 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ratio | 1:6 | 1:7.5 | 1:10 | 1:15.5 | 1:22.5 |
| Yarn | Med | Med | Med | Fine | X-Fine |
Monarch 4A accelerated. Twelve settings, ten of them distinct, running 1:12 to 1:52. Slowest to fastest: 1:12, 1:18, 1:18, 1:19, 1:23, 1:26, 1:28, 1:28, 1:33.5, 1:35.5, 1:39.5, 1:52.
Echo, Golden Whorl (2016 to 2024)
The guide states it plainly: the ratios on the 8 oz, 16 oz and 32 oz flyers are all the same.
| Position | H1 | H2 | H3 | H4 | H5 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ratio | 1:4.5 | 1:6 | 1:8 | 1:12 | 1:18 |
| Yarn | Bulky | Med | Med | Fine | X-Fine |
The 4 oz flyer has its own set of three.
| Position | H1 | H2 | H3 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ratio | 1:8 | 1:12 | 1:17 |
| Yarn | Med | Fine | X-Fine |
Echo 4A accelerated. Twelve settings, ten distinct, running 1:9.5 to 1:40, and the guide treats the whole range as fine spinning. Slowest to fastest: 1:9.5, 1:14.5, 1:14.5, 1:15, 1:18, 1:20.5, 1:22, 1:22, 1:26.5, 1:28, 1:31, 1:40.
Pollywog, Golden Whorl (2016 to 2024)
The 4 oz flyer has four positions, and the first one is a wooden whorl that sits outside the numbering. That is why the Pollywog is often described as having three speeds when there are four places to put the band.
| Position | H (wooden) | 1 | 2 | 3 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ratio | 1:2.5 | 1:4.5 | 1:10 | 1:14 |
| Yarn | Bulky | Bulky / Med | Med / Fine | Fine / X-Fine |
The 12 oz flyer has positions 1, 2 and 3 at the same 1:4.5, 1:10 and 1:14. It has no wooden H whorl, so 1:2.5 does not exist on the 12 oz flyer. If you have seen that figure attached to a 12 oz Pollywog somewhere, it was carried over from the 4 oz row by mistake.
Pollywog Accelerator. It fits both flyers and gives twelve settings from 1:8 to 1:33. Slowest to fastest: 1:8, 1:9.5, 1:11, 1:12, 1:14, 1:15, 1:17, 1:18, 1:22, 1:23, 1:25, 1:33.
Safety note, quoted from their guide: "The wooden 4 oz (H) whorl is not to be used with the accelerator."
Bullfrog 16 oz, Golden Whorl (2016 to 2024)
| Position | H1 | H2 | H3 | H4 | H5 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ratio | 1:4.5 | 1:6 | 1:8 | 1:12 | 1:18 |
Queen Bee, Golden Whorl (2016 to 2024)
Fifteen settings, fourteen distinct, running 1:4 to 1:44. The Bee wheels combine a head whorl with the lower left and lower right wheels, so these are combinations rather than a single row of whorl steps. Slowest to fastest: 1:4, 1:6, 1:6, 1:8.5, 1:9, 1:10, 1:11, 1:13, 1:14, 1:17, 1:19, 1:19.5, 1:25, 1:30, 1:44.
King Bee, Golden Whorl (2016 to 2024)
Twelve settings, running 1:4 to 1:34. Slowest to fastest: 1:4, 1:5, 1:6, 1:8, 1:8.5, 1:9, 1:12, 1:13, 1:15, 1:19, 1:24, 1:34.
Worker Bee, Golden Whorl (2016 to 2024)
Twelve settings, eleven distinct, running 1:4 to 1:18.5. Slowest to fastest: 1:4, 1:5.5, 1:6, 1:6.5, 1:8, 1:9, 1:9, 1:9.5, 1:12, 1:12.5, 1:14, 1:18.5.
Hopper, generation not stated
The Hopper is the one wheel whose ratio guide carries no date and no whorl label. Its ranges match the Golden era documents, but the manufacturer's own summary of that era marks the Hopper as an exception to it, so we publish these as the Hopper's own figures without attaching a generation to them.
Each flyer has a low set and a high set of four, chosen by which groove the thick rear drive band sits in. The three flyer sizes do not share a set.
| Flyer | Set | H1 | H2 | H3 | H4 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 8 oz | Low | 1:1.5 | 1:2 | 1:3 | 1:4.5 |
| 8 oz | High | 1:6 | 1:9 | 1:12 | 1:15 |
| 16 oz | Low | 1:2 | 1:4 | 1:5.5 | 1:8 |
| 16 oz | High | 1:4 | 1:8 | 1:11 | 1:18 |
| 32 oz | Low | 1:1 | 1:1.5 | 1:2 | 1:3 |
| 32 oz | High | 1:5 | 1:7 | 1:9 | 1:11 |
The 16 oz oddity, because it surprises everyone. On the 16 oz flyer the low set's H4 is 1:8, which is faster than the high set's H1 at 1:4. The two sets overlap, so position order is not speed order and "low" does not mean slower at every position. The 16 oz also repeats values across the two sets: there are eight positions but only six distinct ratios. Work from the numbers, not from the labels.
Firefly
The Firefly has no fixed ratios to choose from. It is motor driven, the band runs on the middle golden whorl and stays there, and speed is set at the control rather than by moving the band. The other whorl steps are present because the Firefly shares its flyer heads with the Monarch, not because you are meant to use them.
Mach II and Mach III, the Monarch's ancestors
If you own one of these, both guides print the same five ratios: 1:3, 1:5, 1:10, 1:15 and 1:21, with the band moving from the largest pulley to the smallest, the largest three pulleys in wood and the smallest two in metal. The Mach II is a Wooden Whorl wheel (2006 to 2013) and the Mach III is a Corian Whorl wheel (2013 to 2017). One caution: the Mach III guide is visibly a copy edit of the Mach II guide, so its figures may have been carried over rather than measured again on the newer wheel.
What the numbers mean in practice
All the figures in this section are Golden Whorl era (2016 to 2024), using only the yarn labels the guides themselves print. Every wheel above puts its slowest ratio at H1 and its fastest at the highest number, and the guides label the ends of the range by the yarn they suit. Using only the labels the guides themselves print:
- Bulky. The bottom of the range, roughly 1:2.5 to 1:4.5. Big twist-light singles, art yarn, plying thick. This is where the Pollywog's wooden whorl and the Hopper's low sets live.
- Med. The working middle, roughly 1:6 to 1:10. Most everyday wool spinning and most plying sits here.
- Fine. Roughly 1:12 to 1:15.5. Sock weight and finer singles, where you want more twist per treadle.
- X-Fine. Roughly 1:17 and up, and everything an accelerator gives you above that. Lace, cotton, silk and anything that needs a lot of twist in a short length.
Those bands are a guide, not a rule, and the guides do not draw the lines in exactly the same place on every wheel. The Echo calls 1:4.5 Bulky where the Pollywog calls 1:4.5 Bulky to Med, and the Monarch calls 1:10 Med where the Pollywog calls it Med to Fine. Read your own wheel's table first.
Two practical points that matter more than the exact label. On a SpinOlution the whorl lives on the flyer head, so the flyer you fit is what sets your ratio range, and the top ratio generally drops as bobbin capacity goes up. And an accelerator is a fine spinning tool rather than a general upgrade: it lifts the top of your range a long way and does nothing for the bottom of it.
The current generation
Wheels built from 2023 onward carry the 3D printed whorl, black through 2025 and birch tone from 2026, with the change being cosmetic and the ratios unchanged between the two colours.
SpinOlution has not published verified ratios for the current whorl generation. We are not going to print a number for it that we cannot stand behind, because a ratio you set a yarn plan around needs to be right. We will publish the current figures as soon as SpinOlution releases them, or as soon as we have measured a current wheel here ourselves.
In the meantime, be careful with ratio figures found elsewhere online. Golden Whorl era numbers are still circulating widely, usually unlabelled, and they describe a wheel built before 2024. If a page does not tell you which generation its numbers belong to, it cannot tell you whether they apply to your wheel.
Parts, bands and help identifying yours
We stock bobbins, drive bands, flyer heads and flyer parts across the SpinOlution range, including for the older generations. Fitment on these wheels turns on the whorl generation more than on the model name: the Bee wheels in particular need a band matched to the whorl they were built with, because the pulley size changed between generations.
If you are not certain which generation you have, or you want to be sure a part fits before you order it, send us a photo of the flyer head and the whorl and tell us the model. We will identify the generation and tell you what fits.