I recently acquired a Louet David that has the older style hanging beater. I've been thinking of upgrading to the newer sliding beater attachment, but I'm wondering how easy it is to revert the loom back to the hanging beater. The new beater looks as through it's meant to be permanently screwed into the sides of the loom. Anyone recently "upgraded" their Louet David? I was thinking it might be possible to use wingnuts to allow the sliding beater to be removed.

My other loom is an Ashford table loom which always suffers from nose-diving shuttles. I always felt I needed a shuttle race and thought the hanging beater style was to blame. However, with the David I've grown to like the hanging beater, the motion is nice for both finer threads and a more forceful beat and the shed floor is taut enough to prevent the shuttle from falling through. However, I recently did a warp with thicker worsted yarns and the shuttle kept nose-diving~!

Any of your thoughts on the new beater are appreciated!

Comments

Mon, 05/20/2013 - 23:16

sandra.eberhar…

Not sure why you associate a hanging beater with no shuttle race.  I have three hanging beaters, all with shuttle races.  One is fairly shallow, but sufficient.  One big reason for diving shuttles is insufficient warp tension.  You can add a shuttle race easily; just add a piece of wood.  I have seen references that say jack looms need shuttle races, countermarche and counterbalance do not because the bottom threads are tensioned.  The David has a falling shed, so the bottom threads would be tensioned even though it's a jack loom.  I am interested in getting a David, and one reason is the new beater design.  I find a hanging beater with short swords needs constant warp advance.