Hi,
I have a 16 harness FDL and I'm trying to do a pique weave with the face weave on the upper warp beam and the stitchers on the lower beam.  I'm having problems with tension.  I need the face warp to be looser than the stitchers.  It's warped and it's extremely hard to advance the warp, thankfully I'm not using fragile yarns.  Do I need a locking break to get better differences in tension?  In the future I would like to use more delicate yarns to do the pique and so I need to figure out how to get better tension differences.  Also, how do I get consistant loose tension and consistant tight tension on the two beams.  Usually when I have woven on this loom I have had great consistent tension.  Now everytime I advance, which takes some serious strength, I have to go to the back of the loom and fiddle with the tension on the beams.  Hope this all makes sense!
Thanks so much!
Joy

Comments

Fri, 03/01/2013 - 00:40

laurafry

On my PDL I can set the tension for each beam separately.  Can you do that?

cheers,

Laura

Fri, 03/01/2013 - 02:26

jemccallister

Yep, I can set the tension on both beams. I have attached two photos of what happens when I advance the warp.  First photo is what happens to the face warp (upper beam) that has less tension.  Second picture is what the tension looks like after I go fiddle with it...and what it should look like normally when I advance.  It's extremely hard to advance the warp.  Is this typical when using both beams?

Fri, 03/01/2013 - 02:27

jemccallister

Here is the photo of what the tension should look like.  After I fiddle with it.

Fri, 03/01/2013 - 04:40

laurafry

Your system is different than mine. It looks like you have both beams connected? My beams are tensioned separately. Perhaps someone else can be of more help. Laura
Fri, 03/01/2013 - 13:25

tien (not verified)

In a pinch, you could try live-weight tension on one beam, perhaps?

Fri, 03/01/2013 - 14:50

jemccallister

Laura,

This is a picture of the upper beam, the lower beam is on the other side and is tensioned seperately.

Tien,

Do you like the live weight system?  Better than the one that came with your AVL?

 

Thanks!

Joy

Fri, 03/01/2013 - 20:27

laurafry

It looks like the FDL is a different system from my PDL.  Perhaps someone with your type of loom will chime in....

cheers,

Laura

Sat, 03/02/2013 - 02:59

Bonnie Inouye (not verified)

I have used two beams on my 48" AVL and it was a lot harder to advance the warp than it is with either beam alone. There were no mechanical problems. On my 48" loom (built in 1988) each beam has a black weight that moves along an arm so I can adjust the tension. Using two beams means working with two weights. I had to get off the bench and advance the warp standing up.

I also have a 40" folding AVL, 16 shafts, but that loom only has one beam. The tension system is different, using springs and cords instead of the black weights. I think it would be tricky to get enough tension on one beam on that loom for pique. I have only woven a little pique and I hung weight on a metal bar over part of the warp then.

You might try contacting weavers who have written about pique. I think Doramay wove some, maybe on her AVL but it wasn't a folding loom.

Bonnie

Sat, 03/02/2013 - 02:59

Bonnie Inouye (not verified)

I have used two beams on my 48" AVL and it was a lot harder to advance the warp than it is with either beam alone. There were no mechanical problems. On my 48" loom (built in 1988) each beam has a black weight that moves along an arm so I can adjust the tension. Using two beams means working with two weights. I had to get off the bench and advance the warp standing up.

I also have a 40" folding AVL, 16 shafts, but that loom only has one beam. The tension system is different, using springs and cords instead of the black weights. I think it would be tricky to get enough tension on one beam on that loom for pique. I have only woven a little pique and I hung weight on a metal bar over part of the warp then.

You might try contacting weavers who have written about pique. I think Doramay wove some, maybe on her AVL but it wasn't a folding loom.

Bonnie

Sat, 03/02/2013 - 04:14

tien (not verified)

I love the live-weight system! It provides perfectly even tension, and if you should happen to advance a little too far, you can just roll back the cloth a little bit, and the weight rolls back with it, keeping the tension even.

I wrote up how I use live-weight tension here: http://www.tienchiu.com/2009/05/live-weight-warp-tensioning-system/

Anyway, bottom line is, I love it!

Sat, 03/02/2013 - 14:33

NancyHassel

I am weaving with a loose & tight warp on my FDL right now (based upon the MM Atwater Shuttlecraft 2 warp rug on page 287). The weaving warp, carried on the 2 front harnesses, is 2x as long as the stitcher (pattern) warp. I am using the springs & cord warp tensioning system they were selling in 1990. The weaving warp is so loose I can turn the warp beam by pulling on a couple of threads by hand (a bad idea of course). The stitcher warp is as tight as I can make it. Both warps are rug warp. The weaving (16" wide) is going great. The difference between you and me is I have the auto-advance system and you do not. I was worried that it was extremely difficult to manually advance the warp when I first started weaving the warp (manual advance is necessary to move the warp forward into position). Then I started weaving & there were not problems. The loose warp beam turns at a different rate than the tensioned beam while the cloth auto-advance is controlling the cloth position. This is a long-winded way of saying I think you are OK as long as you make the loose warp extremely loose, the tight warp extremely tight, and ignore how difficult it is to advance the cloth. I can take some pictures if it helps.

Nancy
P.S. I now want to convert to Tien's weight-tensioning system.

Sat, 03/02/2013 - 19:58

jemccallister

Thanks everyone for your responses!

Tien,

How would I create a live tension system with two different tensions on the two beams?  Different weight amounts?

Thanks so much!

Joy