Now the kids are grown up and (mostly) gone, I figured it's time I started indulging my interest in weaving!
I have recently bought a number of looms, of various types and in various states of repair! The biggest is a very old tradional build swedish loom with a lot of history, (and a lot of reeds!) but is missing the cloth beam. I could probably make a replacement . . . if I knew what it looked like!
The warp beam is a solid chunk of wood carved into an octagon about 6" across for the most part with the ends being cylindrical to rest on the back of the frame. There is also a huge wooden ratchet at one end. Where the cloth beam fits in the frame, there are 1" holes and a lot of scratching about 3" out from the center. I am not sure if this is from the ends of the beam or from the ratchet teeth. I suspect that it's from the ratchet, as the latch part of the ratchet is still there, and is tipped with metal, which suggests that the cog part may also have been metal. (The frame shows signs of many alterations over a long period of time, and I think a metal ratchet was one of them.)
I figure that a cloth beam doesn't need be so great a diameter as the warp beam as it doesn't deal with so much strain as the warp beam. (Please correct me if I'm wrong!) If that's right, I can probably make something suitable from some 3x3 timber, with 1" dowel for the pivots. The ratchet part, I figure has to have more teeth than the warp beam (which only has 10-12 teeth!), to allow fine adjustment of the tension on the web. (Again, do please correct me if I've got it wrong!) Also, am I right in thinking that this ratchet doesn't have to cope with the strain from beating, like the warp beam does? I am hoping that it will be ok if I make it from good quality thick plywood. I can then make it relatively large diameter to accomodate lots of teeth to allow fine adjustment.
Does this sound like a workable plan, or am I oversimplifying, or perhaps making things unnecessarily difficult for myself?
Your comments and advice will be gratefully received! Thanks for reading!
Forgot to say, looking on the net, etc, I think it's a four shaft counterbalance loom.
Hi Woodburner,
I think that you have it figured out. The ratchets were often metal and look like a saw blade. And if you look at saw blades, you might find one that will work.
You could purchase a Glimakra ratchet wheel, which has 48 teeth. However, it is on the outside of the loom. That makes it easier to use. It requires that the beam have an extension, after the round hole, which is square. The hole in the ratchet wheel is square to keep it from slipping.
Joanne
Thank you so much for that re-assurance! And for the suggestions. :)
I've been looking on the net for the pictures of it assembled that were posted up when I bought it. I haven't found them but looking at others to see if I could find a similar one, jogged my memory of something. It seems to conradict the presence of a ratchet though. :S At the end of the beam, on the inside of the frame, is a large, thick disk with four dowels poking out perpendicular to the axis. There might have been another one at the other end of the beam as well, but hidden by the frame. I am wondering if this was the original tension device, with the tension provided by hanging a suitable amount of weight suspended from one of the dowels. (I am sure I've seen something like it somewhere, though possibly not on a loom!) I would think that, as well as being much easier to make, this would provide a perfectly even tension throughout the weaving of the whole piece. There definitely was a ratchet though, the pawl is there to prove it. :S Was it just a matter of 'belt and braces'? Or were the dowels just for turning the beam?
Would such a device be sufficient on it's own as a tension device,or is that likely to be why a ratchet was added?
I have looked everwhere, to no avail for a picture or description of this method of tensioning the web, so I will attempt to describe it myself: A weight is suspended from a cord with a loop in the end. The cord is wound around the 'drum' with the loop over the most suitable dowel peg, so that the weight hangs freely, neither resting on the drum, nor on the floor, and constantly 'pulls' in the direction of winding the cloth onto the beam.
The live weight tension that you are describing was and is used on the warp beam, not the cloth beam.
The cloth beam usually had a ratched and pawl to keep it in place.
Ahh yes, thanks, that's reminded me of where I possibly saw it, in a digital facsimile of a very old textbook, and it was definitely for the warp beam. The text said something about absorbing some of the jolt of the beater.
My beastie very definitely has a ratchet at the back though; there's no way that beam could go at the front. I had been wondering about the wisdom of having such a rigid affair for the warp beam, but there's no way I can change it without ruining it. It would be better to make a whole new loom. :( I guess I'll just have to suck it and see.
I do like the idea of having live tension though, so I will at least try it on the cloth beam and maybe add a metal ratchet if it doesn't work.
Thanks everyone. :)
of my old (swedish) loom's cloth beam ratchet can be found here: http://weavolution.com/forum/weaving/type-wood-ratchet-paul-17963#comment-52708
Kerstin, posting from Laura's account :)
Here's mine, I left an inch between the frame and the rachet until I deside whether I need a brake there. I don't think so on the cloth beam. But a brake would be nice on the warp beam.
Very nice, and very interesting photo's. I must try and get some pics of mine, and post them up. The more pics of similar looms I see the more I realise mine has some very unusual features!
Peggy Osterkamp's book Warping Your Loom & Tying On New Warps has the most lucid description of the weighted tensioning device (with two rocks as weights, one 10 times the weight of the other). It's in a section on Automatic Warp Tensioning Devices IIRC.
It also has a description of the dowel on the warp beam. The dowel is to hitch the rope that holds the rocks, not to turn the beam.
That sounds very interesting, I must get acquainted with the inter-library lending system. ;)
This is the chunky beast on my warp beam. You can see why I need a finer adjustment on the cloth beam
