I am warping front to back.  The question I have is about tension on the warp as it is wound on the back beam.  I know there has to be some tension, but how much tension do you need,  and how do you keep tension on the warp and turn the crank to wind it at the same time?  Sometimes there is someone to help with this and hold the warp, while I wind it on.   But I would like to be able to do this by myself. 

Any thoughts and suggestions?

 

 

Comments

Mon, 08/10/2009 - 12:38

debmcclintock

You'll lots of advice about weighting the warp.  One alternative is to "wrap" the warp. 

I wind my warp in two to three inch warp chains dependig on the thickness.  I usually chain up my warps so that they don't take up space. The chains are attached to the back warp beam in whatever way your loom is set up. I use a raddle at the back of the loom to space out the warp onto the back beam.  So basically the individual threads come out the raddle over the back beam and onto the warp beam. 

Bring the warp chains thru the shaft frames (slide the heddles to both sides or if your loom doesn't allow much heddle sliding just space the warp chains between the heddles to the front beam.  At this point they'll be spaced properly because of your raddle spacing.

Wrap each warp chain twice around the breast beam and allow it to hang down.  As you advance the warp the "warp wraps" unchain themselves and  will tighten on the front beam.  Every foot or so that I wind on I walk up to the front of the loom and gently tug on warp chains one by one.  Don't grab individual threads, grab the chain group.  You'll work out a rhythm. 

Hope this makes sense.  My photos are on another computer.  Enjoy!

ps, when I worked full time I found out I only had time to wind small warp chains each night.  This allowed me to weave in tiny segments.  The warp wrapping method came out of this....Deb

 

Mon, 08/10/2009 - 13:28

tien (not verified)

Use a trapeze!  This is a bar that hangs from the ceiling (or you can rig up a device that clamps to the loom, see http://travelingtiger.com/blog/2008/05/03/trapeze/ for some photos).  The essence of the idea is that you throw the yarn over the bar and weight it down with  moderate weights (maybe 10 lbs or so) and that provides the tension as you wind on.  Much quicker and more efficient than walking around the loom all the time!

Kati Reeder Meek has written a book on it titled "How to Warp with a Trapeze and Dance with Your Loom" which includes instructions for building a trapeze if you can't put a rod up on the ceiling.  Or you can look at the photos in the blog post I just cited.  PM me if you have any questions or want more photos - I'm about to put another warp on the loom so I will be putting my trapeze back together and clamping it to the loom shortly.

As for how to use the trapeze...the blog post I mentioned has some instructions, a more recent blog post http://travelingtiger.com/blog/2009/08/01/putting-on-a-warp/ has a different way to do it, and a LOT of details are on Laura Fry's website at http://www.laurafry.com/valet.shtml .  (Laura also has a bunch of other tips on her website at http://www.laurafry.com .)  She calls it  a warping valet - different name, same thing.

This makes back to front warping a LOT easier and quicker, imho.

Mon, 08/10/2009 - 13:37

Su Butler

If you have already threaded the heddles and need to maintain tension, and do not have a trapeze, you can put three smoothly sanded wood dowels into the tabby sheds BEHIND the heddles.  Tie the dowels so they will not move while you beam.  This, in essence, turns your entire loom into a tension box and each thread will wind on with the same tension as you beam.  It is important to avoid handling the yarns once they exit the dowels and move towards the warp beam.  The heddles should prevent any tangling but if you do encounter some tangling in front of the reed, just gently loosen the yarns and continue beaming.  This is a very effective way to get an evenly tensioned warp.  If you want more weight on the warp to beam with higher tension, add milk jugs filled with sand or water, or a few heavy books, or whatever you desire to the warp chain to help it resist the beaming a bit.

 

Su :-)

Mon, 08/10/2009 - 20:16

tomrsey (not verified)

Sue, Tien, Deb and helgaundmichael, thank you so much for yoiur replies.  I have looked at the links and references you mentioned.  The trapeze seems like a good idea, I will look more into that.  The weights also seem good.  Space is a problem, so right now I am thinking that Sue's idea using three rods to create a tension box seems easiest to implement right now.  Deb, I liked your idea as well.   I will probably try them all as I start different projects. 

 

Thanks for you responses and your help.

Tom