Weaver's Friend Shafts and Heddle Repair

This loom only has two shafts, so it would seem like the restoration of these parts should go quickly. That is an erroneous assumption, because there are a lot of small parts that make these two shafts do their job well, and ended up being a two day job. Of course, I was not working on them more than a few minutes at a time.

The cast shaft brackets were removed and shown in my previous post.

The long metal bars fit into a couple brackets that are attached to the loom frame.

The metal heddles on this loom were not in real bad condition.  They had a little surface rust, but nothing that couldn't be fixed.

I removed them by threading craft chenille wires through the top and bottom loops while still on the shafts, to keep them in order. For a two shaft rug loom, there were a lot of heddles. I wired them into eight bundles and then pulled the shaft bars out of the shafts.

I started the process of removing the rust on the heddles by soaking them in a tub of vinegar, one bundle at a time.

My energy level was just coming back following my most recent chemo treatment, so this was a good project, taking just a few minutes at a time.

After soaking for a while, I took a scrub brush to the bundle to remove any loose rust and then rinsed them.

I mixed a jar of water and baking soda to give a final neutralizing rinse before blotting on paper towels.

I placed the bundle on a tray in my oven, set at 200 degrees F. to dry.

I just left them in the oven until I was ready for the next bundle, anywhere from 30 minutes to a couple hours.

After removing them from the oven, I sprayed the bundle with silicone to keep rust from forming again.  They will need to be wiped down well before using them to make sure any dark residue is removed.  I will make sure to not use a white warp for the first run of rugs.

An electric sander was the quickest way to remove the corrosion on the shaft bars.

I almost forgot to sand the edges, the most important surfaces of the bars. The heddles won't slide without them being smooth.

I finished up with a silicone spray.

The wooden frames weren't in too bad of shape.  I started by sanding them just enough to remove any lose finish, but not enough to remove the stain.

I have tried numerous things to spruce up the finish, but found that sanding, followed by wiping well with lacquer thinner gave the best results if the stain was pretty well intact. It helped smooth out the remaining finish and stain.

Once all the loom pieces are prepped, I will finish all the wood with a polyurethane varnish.

Aligning Metal and Wire Heddles for Efficient Threading

I never thought too much about my heddles on my looms until I started restoring a couple looms and again a few days ago while helping a friend thread a loom. There is a definite difference in how to install them depending on if they will be threaded left handed or right handed. 

It pays to check the loom before threading so any changes can be made ahead of time.

These are an example of typical wire heddles.  Enlarge the photo to see the direction of the angle of the eye.  These are installed for right handed threading.  The eye slants from front to back, left to right.  Because of the direction of the slant, it is more difficult to thread by someone who is left handed.

By flipping the heddle end to end, you can change the threading direction to left handed. The angle slants in the opposite direction (front to back, right to left).

It pays to watch which direction the eye is facing when putting heddles on the loom. When I was helping a friend thread a new-to-her loom, one shaft had the heddles backwards with a left handed angle, which made it awkward for threading and slowed the process. I have noticed it on a couple of my looms also. I think it is worth the time it takes to fix them and will do that the next time the looms are empty.

 Here are a few heddles from some of my looms.  From the left, the first one is an inserted eye heddle.  The second is a wire heddle.  The third is a stamped metal heddle and the one on the right is a Leclerc repair heddle.  They all have some differences to distinguish front and back or right and left handed.  They don't come designated right or left.  That is determined by how they are installed.

The inserted eye heddle has a slight bend near the top and bottom.  Flipping it side to side will not change the eye angle.  To change from right to left, the heddle must be flipped end to end.  The bends on the ends won't really help much for determining which end is up, so the best thing is to hang one end loop on something stiff and see which way the eye angles.  The chenille wire works well because the heddles don't slip off the wire.

The other wire heddle is like the inserted eye heddle above, with nothing to distinguish the top from the bottom.  Hang them and adjust the eye angle.

 The stamped heddle is the easiest to determine left and right, because the top and bottom loops are different. One end is straight.

The other end has a wavy top.  Line up the wavy tops in the same direction and the eyes should all line up correctly.  Decide if left or right threading is what you want and install with the wavy side up or down, depending on your choice.  Just make sure they are all the same.

This the end of the Leclerc repair heddle.  I love them and have several.

They slip over the heddle bars easily.

Just make sure the eye is facing in the proper direction for threading, just like a normal heddle.

If a whole shaft has the eyes backwards, it can be an easy fix in a lot of cases by just flipping the shaft frame over, just like flipping one heddle over to change eye direction.

Many weavers are not aware of these differences and can't figure out why threading the loom doesn't go as smoothly as they would like.  Take the time to fix the eye direction one time and have years of easy threading.  It will be worth it!

Weaver's Delight Restoration- Will It Ever Be Done?

Here is a close-up of the shafts and wire heddles, before I started working on them.  The bars that hold the heddles were quite rusty, and so were the wire heddles.  Sue Harvey suggested that I pitch the heddles and purchase new inserted eye heddles.  After cleaning one batch of the wire ones, I decided her idea was a good one.  I had a box of steel heddles in the studio, so I got them out, and they were the correct size.  They aren't inserted eye style, but are still better than the rusty wire.

This is half of the heddles, with one bunch strung together with garbage bag ties to keep them in order.  I oiled the ends of each bunch, to help them slide on the bars easily, and to protect them from developing rust.

The heddle bars were sanded with 150 & 100 grit sandpaper, followed by black sandpaper, used wet.  It did a good job as long as I kept hosing the rust off.  They were oiled to keep rust from forming, and to help the heddles slide smoothly.

 When lining up loose heddles, it is important to have the eyes all aiming in the same direction.  Each side of the eye is curved slightly in opposite directions.  Three in this photo and nested together nicely, and the fourth one is the wrong way.  I just laid them on the table, and threaded them on the garbage bag ties as I sorted them.

When I had a group ready, I slid the heddle bars through the end holes before removing the garbage bag ties.

I couldn't find three of the screws for the harness brackets, so I used some that I brought home from work.  They were removed from someone in surgery, and sterilized, but the patient didn't want them.  They were a perfect fit, and they won't rust!

 While attaching the iron hardware to the bottom of the shafts, a couple of the screw holes were too large.  The remedy I use is to get some glue on a toothpick, poke it in the hole, and break it off.

Let the glue dry a bit before inserting the screw.  One or two pieces of toothpick are usually enough to make a smaller hole.

Shafts 1-4 are completed and ready to install.  I'm setting them aside, and moving on.

The next project is to clean the rest of the rusty nuts and bolts that my wonderful husband Bob helped remove tonight. I will clean, paint, and oil them, and sand and varnish the remaining wood parts, while everything is apart.

There are lots of parts soaking in vinegar, ready for cleaning in the morning.  I'll be smelling like a pickle tomorrow!