The last couple days, while Bob was at work, I worked on the little thread rack that came with the loom. As I showed in the last post, the wires were quite rusty. After taking the staples out that were holding the wires, I pulled them out and coated them with naval jelly. While that was working on the rust, I cleaned the wood and gave the stand a pretty coat of red paint.
The naval jelly got quite a bit of rust off, but not enough, so I threw the wires into a container and covered them with vinegar. After they sat soaking overnight, the rest of the rust, except a few small, very stubborn spots, brushed right off. They got a light coat of oil before sliding them back through the holes. Hopefully that should keep rust from forming. I still need to get some wire staples to fasten the wires permanently.
I've heard that the stand tips over readily, so I'm planning on making a couple sandbags to drape over the back legs to keep that from happening.
I was having difficulty getting the mechanical parts of the loom to move after putting it back together. First, I tried oiling everything I thought could bind up, but that didn't help, even thought it needed to be done. I thought it might be how the two gears were assembled, so I had Bob take a look at it this morning. An important piece of information, when reassembling the two gears, is to line up the two notches on the gears. The mechanism will not work if they aren't in the position shown in the photo.
So, we got that part solved, but ran into another problem when we put the plain weave cams (#1 and #2) onto the loom. When we added the 4 shafts, a couple of them seemed to list to one side, and the mechanism wouldn't work again. Thinking it may have been the weight of them, we took out the first two shafts. When we tried moving the beater, the mechanism worked again. After adding the first two shafts again, we traced the problem to shaft two.
There are two brackets with channels to hold the four shafts. Look at the photos, and notice the worn spots in the casting where shaft 2 and 3 slide. The second channel was bad enough that the #2 shaft was binding up in the groove, keeping the mechanism from moving. I will need to get some brazing done to the channels at the top before using the loom.
Bob has helped me out a lot the last few days, helping to get everything working and trouble shooting when things didn't perform as expected. Leslie, from Riverside Loomworks, in Eaton Rapids, Michigan, told me I would need cross supports for the sectional beam, so the individual boards wouldn't give when the warp is wound on. Here is Bob, getting ready to rout the edges of the supports that he made. It's great to have a handy husband!
This is what his cross pieces look like,
and how it looks when installed. They are held in place by pressure.
They have to be installed in two pieces, and then bolted. They divide the beam in thirds.
Without them, the center warp yarns could bow the boards slightly, creating warp tension problems while weaving. Since there would be less yarn in the center, compared to the outer sections, because of having a shorter distance to go around the beam with each revolution, the outer warp threads would get looser. These cross pieces should keep that from happening.
Here is an interesting tidbit of information about these two blocks of wood with the shaft going through both of them from the gear to the cams. On the underside of them, there is a diamond shaped hole cut into each of them, and a round hole drilled through on top. They are oil holes, making it easier to get oil to a very important spot.
If you have a Weaver's Delight, don't forget to feed it with oil between warps!
I'm still waiting on the brake band. Without it, I can't weave or wind on warp unless I have help with someone keeping tension on the warp beam. We are temporarily using rope in place of the picker straps that should be on their way.
