I have an early Dryad (cottage?) four shaft table loom. It came with a mix of string and metal heddles, rather oddly distributed in random blocks, on metal frames.

I have aquired a lot more metal heddles, and am in the process of re-distributing all of the metal heddles evenly between the four frames. I only want to do this once as the metal frames are a pain to remove!

My question is, is it worth putting the string heddles back on or not? I am quite likely to do some pretty fine weaving on it.

hmm in posting this I realise I need to know just how many metal heddles I have . . . I'll go away and count them, this may take a while! . . . I think I'll use my scales to get an approximation ;)

I never used it with the mix of heddles so first off, I am wondering if it's a complete no-no anyway?

Comments

Sun, 08/18/2013 - 14:11

debmcclintock

No worries on mixing as long as your shed works. Maybe put same kind on one shaft if you have enough. Check the warp shed to see how much you care.
Sun, 08/18/2013 - 18:01

sally orgren

One of my guild mates did it, I believe on a Structo or Dorothy table loom, and was not happy with the results. She put all the texsolv heddles on one side, so they were not balanced throughout with the metal.

She might have had a better result if she distributed them more evenly throughout the shafts.

I have added occassional string heddles, and that wasn't a problem. 

Wed, 08/21/2013 - 10:11

Woodburner

Mmm, it's that 'trying it out to see if it works' that I want to avoid. If it doesn't work, then it's a LOT of struggling with getting frames out then back in that will be wasted effort. :( They weren't designed to be taken out

It's a jack loom so not sure if putting all the string heddles on one frame is a good idea, or if it will make that frame sit higher.?

There's something over 600 wire heddles, so, over 2ft (the weaving width), even a weave that would use all of them would only give me epi of 25-26. I'm aiming for epi of 35 on finished wool 2/2 twill. I expect a bit of shrinkage, but I don't think it would shrink that much or would it?

Good point about not putting them all on one side. Now that you've pointed it out, I can see how that could cause problems, especially on that/this type of loom.

I think I need to see how well the string ones nest in with the metal ones to decide whether to put a bunch on either side, or to mix them in all across the frame.

 

 

Wed, 08/21/2013 - 13:40

sally orgren

is the key phrase.

In this case, I believe you are correct. If you put all the string heddles on one shaft, that shaft won't rest down on the warp the same as the others, and yes, it will be a problem. 

Sprinkling the string/texsolv heddles throughout the other shafts, or adding them to both sides (evenly) of each shaft would maintain equal weight on each shaft and across each frame. This should work. 

However, it were me, I would add the string heddles to the edges of each shaft. That way, if it proves a disaster for some unexpected reason, it would be far easier to correct than if they were sprinkled thoughout each shaft. (Unless you plan to just cut them off.)

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I HATE moving heddles. I have a 12s floor loom with a huge book shelf on top of my castle. If I have to move heddles, it is a big PIA. A major goal in my weaving life is to not ever have to "heddle hop" again. ;-)

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A few more things to think about if you are trying to figure out the best heddle situation so you NEVER have to remove those shafts again...

1) I keep the preponderance of heddles on the first few shafts. I do not have my heddles distributed evenly across all the shafts.

 

The reason is that some drafts (S&W or Bronson, for instance) require every other thread to be on shaft 1, or shafts 1 & 2. On a jack, any patterns that have an intensity of warps threaded on a single shaft or two, you want those shafts to be toward the front of the loom, so it is easier to lift cleanly. I will even redraft patterns to make this work instead of re-distributing heddles for these types of projects.

 

2) If you have a lot of heddles on the loom, (or on the first few shafts) you may have to thread projects with empty heddles between the active ones, so you don't end up with a ton of heddles stacked up at the edges, restricting the area in the castle for the warp to pass through. This can mean it takes longer every time you thread the loom to remember to distribute the inactive heddles instead of pushing them aside.

I hope this helps! And I hope you can come up with a plan to never have to remove your shafts again.

(Sadly, I suspect there will still be a bit of heddle hopping in my future—but I have eliminated a great deal of it so far!)

Wed, 08/21/2013 - 17:25

Woodburner

Ahh, yes! Thank you so much for those tips and musings. I see you are familiar with my dilemma! :D

I think I will put equal numbers/weight of metal heddles in the middle of each frame, and have a closer look at my intended weaves to see which frames are most likely to need more heddles and distribute the string heddles accordingly to the sides of the frames.

Wed, 08/21/2013 - 18:02

sally orgren

I went back and read your original query. I was thinking jack = floor loom when I posted this morning, but I see you state the Dryad is a table loom. (Sorry, I am not familiar with the Dryad brand.)

In the case of a table loom, the weight on the shafts might not be as much of an issue as it would with a larger/wider floor loom, depending on how the mechanism lifts the shafts. And it might not be as much of a concern with shed size either. On a table loom, that is more a function of the depth of the loom.

To be safe (and hopefully not have to mess with the heddles/shafts again) I would proceed as I would with the floor loom model and balance them out.

But I just wanted to clarify my answer in case someone who isn't a heddle-hopper-hater follows our bread crumbs and wonders why it wouldn't work on a table loom (to put all the string heddles on one shaft.) On some table looms, it probably would be fine, and if the shafts aren't difficult to remove, worth trying for a quick fix.

Wed, 08/21/2013 - 18:15

debmcclintock

Another option to consider is to put all the same heddles on the same shaft. That way if you have to adjust shaft height or shaft weight you are only dealing with one shaft adjustment relative to the other shafts. It really is loom dependant and you have to make the call based on what you see the warp shed floor doing when weaving and its impact on the shuttle flight.
Sun, 08/25/2013 - 19:37

Woodburner

It operates in the same way as a jack loom in that you manually raise shafts and the rest are simply held down by weight. I realised since posting that the term 'jack' doesn't refer to the mode of operation but to the levers which would make this type of table loom into a floor loom. So your comments are definitely relevant, and the looms you mentioned are very similar to mine. (Is this how all -non RH- table looms work?)

I suspect that being that much smaller the weight might well be more critical not less. I can see that any bigger/heavier would actually have to be foot operated, as the shafts would be too heavy to lift by hand.

Dryad was pretty much THE brand over here (UK) in the 60s and 70s craft revival, but while their looms etc. are quite well made, their designs, especially the earlier models, lack finesse.

The frames are fixed height, another example of their lack of finesse.

 

eta, forgot to mention that on the plus side, the frames are significantly wider than the weaving width, so there is plenty of space to park excess heddles.