Hi all,

I acquired a little 24" Tools of the Trade jack loom (rescued from someone's garage) and have been fixing it up, troubleshooting, replacing parts, but am a little stuck here now that I'm almost to the finish line.  The cords were all cut up/rotten/missing so I replaced them with Texsolv, although now I am having trouble figuring out how to adjust them and get the shafts even.  When I have a warp under tension, it is pulling some shafts higher than others and I can't seem to get them to even out.  Any tips or advice greatly appreciated!

Comments

Tue, 08/27/2013 - 22:27

schtephanie

Or if anyone has a scanned copy of the manual, I'd really love a copy, perhaps it contains some useful tips on setup.

Wed, 08/28/2013 - 01:23

rallioncal

I have no idea how to this either but there are some websites that can maybe assist you with this but I guess I can not post them here because there are just too many. - Lindsay Rosenwald

Wed, 08/28/2013 - 23:13

sandra.eberhar…

Can you show us some more photos showing the whole loom?  I have a small TOTT jack loom, but the mechanism is completely different.  If you can show us the whole loom, we may be able to figure it out.

Thu, 08/29/2013 - 00:40

sally orgren

The manual is pretty lightweight. 1 page maybe? Typewritten. No illustrations.

Ok. A thought... (just checking because I am not sure how experienced you are at weaving.) You realize the weight of the shafts should be pulling the warp DOWN to rest on the shuttle race/beater, right? I am wondering if you have them all tied too high?

This isn't quite the photo I want, but you can see with the beater forward, the warp is just resting on the base. If I were to move the beater back toward the castle, the warp would have to go "up hill" to go over the beater and reed, i.e. it should not be on a straight plane from the back beam to the front beam on a jack loom. 

Also, on my TOTT, this is how the shafts rise.

Are you sure this is a TOTT loom? The side tie up reminds me of an AVL, not so much a TOTT that I have seen so far. But some of the wood parts do look like Art's rock maple.

And I can't figure out why it seems to have treadles AND levers? (Maybe a broader view/photo will show more.)

I'll let Daryl Lancaster know of you post. Perhaps she can shed some light!

Thu, 08/29/2013 - 01:37

MaryMartha

I have no idea how useful or accurate this is, but I found an image of one of these looms for sale, showing the ends of the lamms resting under the side brace.  The picture is from the front, so it is not possible to see exactly what is going on.  Not sure if the seller could provide more information.

Thu, 08/29/2013 - 03:14

schtephanie

MaryMartha, thank you for finding that image, that looks very similar to my loom.  Perhaps the previous owner had mine tied up incorrectly and they should actually go under like that?  Only one lamm was tied up and the rest were cut or missing (also one wood block to hold the lamms to the left side of the loom was missing) so it was hard for me to tell how it was supposed to go.

Sally - yes, that's exactly my first problem - I knew I needed to lower them but I was trying to figure out by how much.  Should the harnesses be resting all the way down on the blocks inside the shafts?  I was trying to set the heddle eyes 1" below the shuttle race but then when I warped it of course everything raised up.  I am a new weaver so I am still trying to figure all of this out, and very much appreciate your help!  I think I did figure out why some shafts are slightly higher than others despite being tied up at the exact same height; there are an uneven number of heddles per shaft and I left all the extras to the left (and therefore some of the harnesses tilt slightly down to the left).  Will have to correct that after this warp.

It is marked Tools of the Trade with a leather strip on the side.  It seems like it was constructed as a floor loom, but with an option to be a portable table loom.  The "floor stand" part is pretty seamless with the rest, and does not look like it was added afterward.

Here are a couple extra pictures.

The whole loom and my "helper"

 

Thu, 08/29/2013 - 05:07

sally orgren

Daryl took a peek, said it was unusual for a TOTT, but doesn't have a chance to investigate quite yet.

My neighbor has one about this size, so let me go over and take a look. (although this might not happen until Sept 9th or 10th based on my schedule.)

I know I hesitated changing my loom over from chains to texsolv for this exact reason - it may remove needed weight from the shafts and they would be more likely to "float".

Right now I am crazy busy, but if you send me a PM thru Weavolution with your e-mail, I will send you the "manual" when I get a chance. You might also check on Daryl's website. I don't know if it is a downloadable document or not.

You are in good company with your TOTT. Several well-known weavers own them. They are great looms!

Thu, 08/29/2013 - 14:23

sally orgren

...and came across it in my loom bench. Grabbed a quick photo for you of the key page.

Thu, 08/29/2013 - 14:45

schtephanie

Thank you so much Sally!  For some reason I can't figure out how to PM you, but I'm mobile right now and will see if I can from my computer browser.  No rush, and many thanks for all the advice thus far!  I'll read through that page and see how well I can apply it to this loom.  I have really fallen in love with it and want to get it working correctly, it's a nice little piece.

Fri, 08/30/2013 - 00:53

sandra.eberhar…

Aha! The reason mine is so different is that yours is a table loom  on a stand, and  mine is a floor loom, like Sally's.  My TOTT didn't come with enough chains to tie the treadles up, so I changed to Texsolv with no problems.  What I would do is use the hand levers at the top of the loom to raise the shafts.  Then I would look at where the lamms and treadles would have to be to have done this, and tie them there.  It may take some adjustment to get it perfect, but if you start where the hand levers would take the shafts without the treadle conversion, it should work.