hi folks. I am new to weaving and being a keen DIYer have already made myself an Ingle loom and a rigid heddle loom. I just finished making a counterbalance floor loom With four frames and six treadles.

It is working well on my first project - a tabby weave scarf with variegated yarn. I have noticed that the left three treadles are harder to press than the three on the right. This is very noticeable because the tabby weave uses only the leftmost and rightmost treadles.

My Lamms are hinged on the left side of the loom so given the character of levers this is to be expected. 

Question. Could I divide the Lamms, leaving 2 & 4 hinged on the left with 1 & 3 hinged to the right side of the loom?  The tie up would then use only the outer half of the Lamms and equalise the effort needed to press them down?

I could try it and see, but it is so much easier to learn from other peoples' mistakes.

Comments

Sat, 10/03/2015 - 12:45

kerstinfroberg

I have seen a picture of such a set-up. (Of course I can't remember where... ) Try it, and pls report back!

Sat, 10/03/2015 - 15:56

Joanne Hall

Other things to try:

Place treadles closer together so that no treadles are far to any side.

Attach treadles at the back of the loom for easier treadling.

How wide is your loom?

Joanne

 

Sat, 10/03/2015 - 17:06

James Carroll

Thank you Joanne

I have big feet and spaced the treadles as close as possible.

I had thought of attaching them at the back. Now that you mentioned it, it would give me a better lever advantage and may also better spacing.

My loom has a 60cm reed (24") but is 84cm over all because I wanted everything inside the frame. I have limited space and also as a learner, my projects will not need anything wider.

 (Tried to add image but could not get it to work)

 

Sat, 10/03/2015 - 17:41

James Carroll

Here it is.

Had to use PC instead of android tablet to get the image posted.

Bought timber for the frame but everything else is recycled from old boards, a door and some steel plate scrounged at the local rubbish skips. Cut two steel ratchet wheels with an angle grinder. 

It just squeezes in between a cupboard door and the room door and I could not get back far enough to photograph the whole thing. Still a work in progress as you can tell from my question but it works.

Tue, 10/27/2015 - 10:14

James Carroll

Just reporting back on solution to the problem.

Joanne's question about the width of my loom caused me to ponder why it was asked. I realised that it had a contribution to the problem and decided that splitting the lamms would not in fact work.

I decided to hang the treadles off the back. In the process I also improved the treadle to lamms tie up system by adding eyes to the lamms instead of just holes. Now clips can be used instead of knots.

Thank you for your input.

Treadle clips

Tue, 10/27/2015 - 17:43

Joanne Hall

I can see that the left treadle is very close to the side of the loom.  When treadles are attached at the back of the loom, there is a small movement sideways.  This movement allows you to place the treadles closer together.  So, even with wide feet, the neighboring treadles move out of the way when you are treadling. If there is too much movement to get used to, put spacers between the treadles.

If you put treadle cords around the lamms rather than in the holes, you can test out a closer setting of the treadles. 

Joanne

Tue, 10/27/2015 - 19:45

James Carroll

Joanne, you are such a mine of information. Thank you for sharing. The closeness of treadle to the side is a function of the narrowness of the loom.

This is my first floor loom and I have learned a lot in the process of building and using it. My next one will be wider and use the lessons learned in this one.

In the mean time I will enjoy using this little one as it is good enough to get the job done.