tools of the trade loom

Well, if you own a TOTT loom, I can assure you you are in GOOD company along with well-known weavers like Daryl Lancaster, Jan Friedman, and Marjie Thompson! Although they stopped making these looms in the mid-80's, I never thought I'd get to own one because you hardly ever see them come up for sale.

My vote (sight unseen) is to fix it up, put on a warp, and see what you think!

You mention "the wood is too old" on your loom. I am not sure what this means...The wood on the TOTT is typically rock maple, so I haven't even TRIED to drill into it. Your wood might be dirty, but it should be solid, unless the treadles have been replaced by a lesser wood or it suffered some kind of severe damage? (Photos would help!) 

I believe LeClerc parts might work with this loom, as I think I heard that was the original source for the metal prawls, etc. (Hopefully someone can chime in and confirm that.)

You have several of us here at Weavolution to help, and we can take pictures of our TOTT looms and post to this forum if you are wondering about missing parts or how things attach. If you fix it up and then decide to sell it, I wouldn't be surprised if it goes quickly.

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My TOTT story:
When I was ready for my first real floor loom, I queried my guild mates incessantly about their looms, and I spent more than 2 years looking at ALL the looms being manufactured, including visiting looms at conferences and in homes of weavers in other states. (I saw something like 10 looms in 2 days on a visit to Iowa, thanks to my mother-in-law and my boss's wife!)

I was impressed by this brand for many reasons: because of the quality craftsmanship of the woodworker who made them, and the caliber of the work produced by the weavers who wove with them. I know everyone seems to have likes and dislikes about particular loom designs, but this brand seemed overall to have a lot of fans with positive things to say. It took me a few more years before one practically fell into my lap. (I bought it over the Internet, sight unseen!)

The closest loom I have seen in current production to the TOTT is the Fireside Fiber Arts loom (which also has an excellent reputation for fine craftmanship). 

My TOTT is #368, a 12 shaft, 45" 2 beam (one sectional), 14 treadle model that weighs under 250 pounds. I know because I had it crated and shipped from Medford, OR to NJ. My loom was owned by Marge King. (you can see some of her woven contributions in the Strickler 8 shaft book). She took such loving care of it and sent it to me with so many bells and whistles, I still think wonderful thoughts about her when I weave on this loom.

Let us know what you decide to do and if we can help!

Hi, you will be better off replacing this piece.It looks from the picture that someone has try repairing it. The grain of the wood does not match. If you sent me the measurements I will figure out a price of a new part out of rock maple. You can tell your husband the trick to drilling rock maple is a sharp drill bit and slow speed. If you drill too fast you will heat up and loss the temper on the drill bit. Then you can just throw it (the bit) away.

Michael

Can you take a picture of the other side of the roller?

Michael

Did you have a picture with the top wooden piece off, or am I thinking about a different loom.

Michael

Hi, Daryl posted a picture showing a metal plate on her "new" TOTT loom. When I saw the slanted cut I thought this was the case. This is done on a number of looms.

Michael

Here's the view of my loom to mirror your loom what I am calling the "left, front beam, side view."

The front beam is slipped into a hole on the brake side (right side front as facing the loom), and then it just drops into this slot on the left side, and that metal flange slips over the slot.

 Here are two views of the right front brake side:

Any chance you can contact the seller immediately make sure the handle isn't lying around someplace?

I can take a picture of mine against a grid, so you can get an idea of what they look like and the size.

I am willing to bet there is something at the hardware store that would work equally as well.

BTW, I learned last summer at NEWS that TOTT maker Art was still alive and doing woodworking, just not looms. Also, at one time Daryl told me he used LeClerc for the metal hardware, so perhaps their site might be helpful?

The handle for the warp beam on my ToTT loom was also missing when I purchased it used, and I replaced it with a LeClerc handle purchased from Camilla Valley Farm.  The medium crank handle comes pretty close to fitting my loom.  That being said I think a ratchet wrench with the right size head would also work. You can see examples of Art's other work here. 

BIG Thanks for the link!

As soon as the photos popped up, I immediately was thinking "I want some of that guy's furniture!"

Then I thought, "Hey wait. I have some - my loom!"

Me too!!

It seems that the TOTT loom crank handles were pretty easy to misplace or lose for previous owners. Mine I bought last Nov also did not have it's original crank. The lady I bought mine from gave me the handle she used in place of the original which happens to be a Nilus LeClerc too.

It works fine for cranking, but has to be stored in the tool box when not being used or it will fall off. In my house I have too many snooping dog noses with a couple of them who love to "swipe" things that don't belong to them & chew the dickens out of whatever they find.

... for living with all that cuteness!

"In my house I have too many snooping dog noses with a couple of them who love to "swipe" things that don't belong to them & chew the dickens out of whatever they find."

I just got a lovely 8 harness, 45" TOTT loom and am cleaning it up (it spent some years in a garage).

I have about 35 tie-up chains and about 25 tie-up rods.  Is this enough?  I could make more tie-up rods out of coathanger, but the chain and washer setup would be hard to imitate.  I just wondered what people have with theirs.  Thanks!

is easy to replicate at any hardware store.

You only need as many rods as treadles, I assume 10. (Coat hanger wire is probably not strong enough.)

If you tie up half of all shafts across all treadles, that is 32 chains. If you tie up two additional treadles for tabby, you'll need an additional 8 chains.

But keep in mind, for projects that require lots of chains, you can always tie up the reverse (the pattern will weave on the underside) to lift fewer shafts (and that would require fewer chains, too.)

What I thought were tie-up things, Mr Weitzenfeld says are unrelated to the loom, I really have nine of the tie-up rods, plus these 25 things that are from Mars.  There was a random metal rod with the loom, a good bit longer than the tie-up rods, maybe it was a substitute for the lost rod.  I made one out of coathanger but I can see that it won't be rigid enough.

So I could get chains and get washers onto them in the same way that the washers are on these chains?  Offhand I can't envision how the washers got on the chains as they are larger than the hole in the washer in order to do their job.  I wonder how many chains it originally came with.

When I finish my four shaft coverlet and begin to re-assemble this loom, I will be back here begging for photos of the brake and the cloth beam lever, as I never saw those attached!  I removed the beams myself so I know how they go.

Thanks for the help!  I will surely be back here over the next few months as this progresses!

The heddles slide along these rods. Does it match the size of the others?

When ready, ask away.

No not as long as that, and it's a bit thicker.  I think it's about 15 or 16" long - could be a heddle rod from a Leclerc Dorothy, I think, as I have the instruction manual for a Dorothy among the box of miscellany, as well as a 15" 15 dent reed...

Which reminds me - there were a whole bunch of inserted eye heddles on the shafts and they didn't slide very nicely - I don't know if it's the size of the rod vs. the heddle shape, or if the space isn't quite long enough for them and I need to give the hooks holding the rods half a turn to gain some space.  I think they are Leclerc 10.5" inserted eye heddles, as they match the ones I have already.  Do you or anyone else happen to have any trouble with those heddle rods being too big for your heddles?  Thanks!

False alarm, it's all there, just tucked up where I didn't randomly notice it.  Sorry!  And it looks just like the photo below!

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I found this photo on another forum here, showing the long chain, spring, S hooks, little bar that connect the brake cable to the pedal and make it work.  I think I'm missing all of this stuff!  Is this from Leclerc??  This has me worried as a loom with no brake is a pile of pretty sticks...

http://www.weavolution.com/sites/default/files/fckimage/user41612/img_7694.jpg

As an earlier post mentioned, the hardware on my TOTT is Leclerc.  It's available from Leclerc or Camilla Valley Farm. I adore my TOTT.  It must be one of the earlier ones because it has no number or date.  It is one of the best designed looms I have seen, and it has an excellent large shed, rare for a small jack loom.  I paid $600 for it and it had paid for itself in the first year I had it in towel sales.  One key feature is that the jacks are graduated in size, which gives you the big shed.  The other is that the treadles can be adjusted in heighth and placement. I had a Baby Wolf and could not make it comfortable to work on.  I can work on my TOTT all day.

Thanks, that is nice to hear!  I'm almost done weaving on the Herald, just need to find it a new home and I can assemble the TOTT loom.  I'd love to know your experience of adjusting the jacks to achieve a really good shed, I know that I can do that but won't know till I get the loom put together how I want to do it.

I've put the beams on my loom - on each beam, there is an arm at each end that has a notch and goes onto a bolt sticking out of the castle.  On my loom, if I put the beams on with everything in the right place, the notches in the arms come up onto those bolts from below, which means that as I put things together they keep dropping off.  Shouldn't they go down onto the bolts from above, which means I need to take them off and turn them around?  I think I did the beams correctly, as the brake controls which way the back beam goes and the breast beam has to be level/flat to be on right...  Thanks!

They come down over the bolts, so they don't fall out.

On my 4 shaft ToTT they come from below and are held by washers and wing nuts.  You can see that the notches are slightly angled so that they don't fall right off (The picture is sideways).

Just need more washers and nuts I guess!

On my 4 shaft TOTT the the front and back side support bars are on over the bolts like Sally's go. I brought my loom home from the previous owner intact. They work beautifully this way going over the bolts and unhook easily when needed with no falling off when in use.

Here is a photo of mine for comparrison to the other way.

De'Andrea~~

I wonder if there's a particular date when the change was made.  My loom doesn't have a number, so I'm curious if it might be possible to use this info to help figure out its age.

Also, I haven't had any issues with the side pieces falling while in use.

Hmmm, I don't have any idea about that. My loom has the number 177 on it, but as far as when it was made or how old it is  I don't  know. Wonder if they kept records that people who own them could find out and where this info might be found? 

The piece of leather with the number is typically found on the left side of the castle (if facing the front of the loom) and typically there is second one on the top right side of the front of the castle. If you have two small holes instead, that is where the leather used to be.

The designer is still alive and makes furniture, but I am unsure if he wants to entertain queries about looms he stopped building in the mid-80's.

You could go back and look at weaving magazines and follow the advertising trail to get an idea of the period of production.

on the left side of the castle, but it has no number.  There isn't anything on the top right side of the front of the castle.  I'm curious, but not sure how much effort I want to put into researching it.

My loom has been up and running for several months and I've already woven one (four shaft) project on it.  I made a bunch of extra chains for the tieup out of stuff I bought at Home Depot (they cut the chain for me in short lengths, which was helpful) and went over the whole thing with clear Danish Oil.  It makes a great shed!  I hope I have not tied up the treadles too high, in order to get that shed, but I don't imagine I can be doing any harm by hooking each chain up in such a way as to get the shed I want.

managed to duplicate post. Can't seem to delete this one.

Hmmm. I thread mine from the front and just fold the front beam up against the loom. I didn't have enough chains for mine (only about 10) so I changed to Texsolve.  However, the holes in the lamms are too big and the pegs sometimes come out.  I think I'm going to get some chain and change back to the chain and washer. Fotyc, on an earlier post you mention adjustable jacks. I didn't say the jacks were adjustable.  I said they were graduated. They get bigger toward the front.  Mine had no handle, a 1/4' ratchet handle works perfectly.

Here are a series of photos from under the shafts of my 12 shaft TOTT loom.

My lamms and jacks are all the same size. My loom is numbered #368.

lamms at rest

A treadle is activated: the red circle shows the lower part of the jacks from shaft 3 have been pulled down toward the lamms. The other end of the jack is pushing the shaft up.

Zoom shot from below the jacks, showing how the jacks are chained to the lamms.

FYI, I don't have a lot of shafts tied up at the moment because I am weaving a 6 shaft Huck pattern.

They are adjustable - maybe saying it's the jacks isn't what I mean - but if you look at the pictures just above here, there is a nut above and below the jack and you can  give the shaft some mechanical advantage by moving those nuts so the eye screw goes further down into the jack, thus giving the harness a boost.  I'm weaving my first eight shaft project and trying to make the adjustments that will give me a good shed across all eight shafts - it seems from the geometry of a multiharness loom that the back harnesses have to go up higher than the front ones to get the threads to clear the shed, and this loom has adjustments you can make this way (according to the directions from the maker).  I'd love to know if anyone has used these nuts to improve the shed when using all the harnesses, and how you did it and how it worked for you.

sorry posted twice...