I've had my Louet Jane table loom for about a month and am having problems using a boat shuttle.  Sometimes it does okay, but about 20% of the time, instead of just shooting across, it just takes a nose dive down through the warp.  Is this a common occurrence with table looms or am I doing something wrong?  I've just given up and am using stick shuttles but I spent quite a bit on my two lovely boat shuttles that I can't use.

Comments

Sun, 05/11/2014 - 03:07

theresasc

the same thing happen on my table looms.  Most of my floor looms are jack styled looms with shuttle races and I am really used to weaving that way.  I have found on the table looms that I have less fall-through if I keep decent tension on the warp and enter the shed and throw the shuttle as close to the reed as I can.  I also tend to hold the shuttle from the bottom with my index finger on the end of the shuttle to throw is through the shed as level as can be - practice, practice, and more practice:-)  Do not give up on the boat shuttles, they will end up working out great.

Mon, 05/12/2014 - 23:34

sandra.eberhar…

I agree that warp tension is important.  You can add a strip of moulding to the beater to serve as a shuttle race.  I have one loom without a shuttle race, and it is a rug loom, so the warp is very highly tensioned.

Sat, 08/16/2014 - 20:51

Knitknitfrog

Hello, I've just taken my second body of weaving off my structo four shaft table loom, this one was 2 yards long and for the first part woven with a modified stick shuttle, it had sides and height, tapered at the ends but needed the thread wound on like a stick shuttle. Mid way through the weaving a super slim boat shuttle arrived from Bluster Bay - so I wove the rest of the piece with that. Made the weaving soo much faster, less fussing with the weft supply and more weaving. I did have nosediving issues, I found I had to keep my warp tight. Which makes my picks less close, I threw right next to the reed, almost riding against it as a guide, and I held the shuttle at one end with my hand underneath. I'm aiming to throw slightly up, almost so the shuttle runs along the roof of the shed rather than the floor. If I threw what I thought was horizontal I got a submarine shuttle, and all the issues that go with finding the exit path and any skipped threads preceding it. Tight warp, throw slightly up, which I suspect is actually horizontal but I guess I don't really know which way is up and which straight across when I throw and I'm kinda counteracting gravity by angling up.
Sat, 08/16/2014 - 20:59

Sara von Tresckow

"Throwing the shuttle" is perhaps a misnomer when using table looms. They are small and delicate. The Jane, as well as the Ashford models have overhead beaters and no shuttle race.

First, patient practice and slowing down the action at first will work wonders.

Then, the motion on these small looms is not to insert strongly and "throw" the shuttle, but to gently insert the full length of the shuttle and gently guide it across the web without a downward thrust. It might seem counterintuitive, but rather than a 10" mini shuttle, an 18" damask shuttle is best. This puts the shuttle a full 18"(or 12" OR 14") into the warp before any forward motion takes place - much easier to use the long shuttle than to modify the loom.

Also, since the shed is formed by hand on a table loom, stick shuttles can be surprisingly efficient.