Here are pictures of the Walter Arm loom that I just finished working
on. The company tells me it's between 55 and 60 years old. I found
no cracks, but some of the lams were a little warped.
The largest part of the work was to reduce the weaving width from 60
inches to 48 or 49 inches. I needed to do that to have room for the
loom, as you can see. That involved cutting all of the horizontal
members. For some of the joints I had to re-cut the tendons, which
were bolted on with the bolts going into huge nuts that were buried in
the wood. I don't have a mortise machine, so that meant hand
chiseling. But some of the pieces, like the bottom reed holder for the
fly shuttle, were wider on the ends than in the middle, so I decided
to cut through the piece and do a lap joint, overlapping it 11 inches
and pegging it in both directions. I also used a structural two-part
epoxy made for wood for these joints, and they seem to be every bit as
strong as before I did the cut. As you can see, I also converted it to a
parallel countermarch system.
The fly shuttle was a bit of a challenge. I toyed with figuring out
some way to make the extra width detachable because it added 10 inches
to each side, and as you can see, I don't exactly have a lot of space in
this room. In the end I decided to just build a new bottom piece for
the reed holder so I can use it or the fly shuttle or used this new
piece. The piece not being used is just stored in the closet, where it
fits because we have 8 foot ceilings.
I also increased the number of shafts from 8 to 12 and the treddles from
10 to 20. But, this loom actually has enough room for 23 shafts if
you just look at how many pulleys will fit. Of course, I'd never go
that high, but it's nice to not be cramped for room!
The sectional warp beam was also an issue. I wanted to use it with or
without the sectional beam, so that meant making the sections
removable. The problem here is that each section was screwed on with 4
of the largest wood screws I've ever seen. Plus, they were glued
on! So after carefully measuring everything, I took the screws out and
used a rubber hammer and chisels to break the glue joints. Of course
that messed up the beam a bit, so I used an epoxy filler to fill in as
needed and sanded everything down again. Then I ran the sections
through the table saw to cut them all to the same width and added a new
piece of wood to the bottom to make them the same size as they were
originally. Finally, I drilled the holes through the added wood. So,
now the sections are removable. Even without the sections, I can't
really carry the beam by myself - it's just too heavy.
As you can see, it has a built in bench. I added the shelf below which also makes it sturdier.
I used the apron that came with it. The fabric was about the nicest
piece of linen canvas I've ever seen. It was all I could do to keep
myself from replacing it so I could use it to sew something!
Well, everything is done now. Whew!
Looks like you did a fine job on the loom. Now it's time to give the old girl a work out. :)
That's a challenge with the fly shuttles, the width. Mine will add close to 3 feet to my loom. :)
What a beauty! Sally, your work is amazing! That's all I can say.
I have to say I'm really happy to be done with this. This is the second loom I've rennovated since the beginning of November and I'm really tired of it.
Unfortunately, I won't be able to try it out for a couple of weeks. Some other things that got put on hold while I did this have to be taken care of first.
Sally, beautiful job! Are you absolutely SURE that you will be happy with the Arm loom for a while????............
I will be happy if I don't have to do any more rennovations for a very long time! Two in three months is a bit much. The sawdust was an inch thick in the wood shop - took me three days of cleaning!
I usually have to get the shovel and broom out every other week in the shop. Yesterday I took about 10 - 3 foot by 10" deep boxes out to the sawdust pile. That's from the lathe, planer, saws, drill press, jointer and work bench. I burn a lot of it in the shop, the shavings, not the fine saw dust. The fine stuff can be explosive, but it's also hard to light. Shavings have more air.
Anyway, enjoy your loom. :)
My town has this silly rule - no wood in the trash. Now mind you, they will take old wood furniture, just not pieces of wood from the shop. So if your chair is intact, fine, but not if broken. Go figure.
I'm collecting the sawdust and will use it either for mulch or for the "brown" part of my compost pile.
You need a shop stove, just recycle the carbon. ;) Actually I don't throw many scraps out because there is handle wood in them as long as they are an inch or so thick. And as long as they are 6 or 8" long. As sure as you burn them, you'll be looking for a piece. :D If they are long thin ripped pieces left over then there is dowel wood in it, as long as it's 3/8" thick.
Yes, long thin pieces can be used to keep things that are being stained off the table. Slivers are perfect for applying glue in cracks, etc. and very small pieces are perfect to drill holes in to test which drill bit works best for a given screw or nail. And then some small pieces can be used as shims.
Sounds like you throw away as little as I do! It drives DH crazy - he wants to throw out perfectly good pieces of wood and I fish them back out of the trash. . . .
Yeah, usually it has to be checked, with defect, or too small, too thin to do anything with. I make a lot of things from small pieces. I've made a lot of handles for rasps, and other inventive hand tools. ;D Right now, I will be making a wedge hammer for my loom. Probably only use it once, but wood on wood is better than steel on wood. I have a large wooden mallet I made from cherry that I use a lot, but I don't need a heavy mallet around the loom. :D
Here's my peg hammer from the scrap pile I whipped up this morning. ;)
The handle is held in place by a wedge which spreads the end of the handle as it is tapped in the handle hole. Will never come out. :)
