I feel the hours and hours of work her great great grandmother did, standing, spinning, watching her cook fire, her children, planning the weave of the cloth that would be made from the yarn she was spinning. It would honor the work of her hands to repair the wheel, even not repacking the missing spindles. The circle would be a beautiful accent over the mantle, over the guest bedroom bed, over the dining room buffet. It would be a conversational nudge to speak of the family history, the unsung and unpaid hard work of women, the history of weaving, the contemporary feel of the circle as art. I have a butter bowl that belonged to my grandmother. It is so large I only use it for large parties as a salad bowl. My grandmother sold her butter to buy the cloth she cut and sewed to make school dresses for my aunt and my mother during the Depression. If you do use the circle, save the other parts for a future generation. Box and label them so everyone is aware they go with the wheel.

I have one that appears to be EXACTLY like this! It belonged to my husband’s great-grandmother, who lived in Arkansas. What a coincidence. I’ll try to post a picture below.

I would definitely have the wheel put back together, and if there are bits missing, so be it. A talented carpenter can work out how to hold it all together. Mount it on a wall where you can enjoy it.

I recently rebuilt one very similar to this for the museum where I'm a volunteer. It was quite straightforward, these are very simple machines. The worst part was a couple of tenons broken on the turned pieces, I cut those off, drilled a hole into the end of the spindle, and inserted a dowel to create a new tenon. Breaks in the hoop I carefully put back together with some epoxy where there was enough overlapping wood. Where there was a clean break without enough glue surface I bridged the gap with a piece of veneer on each side. Not quite seamless, but it worked fine and preserved most of the original material. To make a really functional piece I'd rive a new piece of green wood and bend it to the circle. At the end it worked, though tedious to use compared to a more modern design wheel.