Hello Dobby weavers,

 

I have just begun weaving my first warp on my new-to-me AVL dobby loom. Two things that I am havin gdifficulty troubleshooting:

1. when I go to advance the warp using the ratchet on the right side of the loom, it takes all of my body weight to move it, it moves forward an inch but then the loom pulls it back a little.

2. When I finally get the warp advanced a decent amount, my beater wont reach it. It just suddnely happened, this wasn't an issue yesterday. So I have adjusted the beater return spring to it's most relaxed state (not sprung at all) and moved the pin from the auto advance linage into the tilting arm to the first hole nearest the floor. The ratchet in the auto advance mechanism is engaged. But still the beater wont reach my cloth, which is far enough away from the cloth beam nearer to the harnesses that it should beat my weft. I cant seem to figure this out. Any suggestions anyone?

Help!

 

 

Comments

laurafry

Almost sounds like something is jammed somewhere?

danteen (not verified)

I'm not sure why you are trying to use the crank to advance, if you have the auto advance engaged.  Or maybe I'm not understanding your description of the problem. But here is what I do.  

I have an old style auto advance with the toothed wheels on one loom.  I removed the crank handle  and don't use it to advance the warp.  If my  actual ppi is wrong  for  the auto advance, I just advance the warp by turning the pick wheel by hand.  It will turn clockwise with the  auto advance mechanism engaged.  I turn it  several times while I hold the beater against the fell, until the beater meets the bumpers.

 If I've advanced too far for the beater to meet the fell properly, I back up the warp  (back toward the warp beam)  by lifting the top pawl off the pick wheel, then holding the bottom pawl out of the way with my foot.  The  tension weight on the back normally pulls the warp toward the back of the loom about 1/4- 1/2" by itself.  

On my other loom I have the new style advance if you need instructions for that.

Here is the text about advancing the warp on a production dobby loom from the manual on the AVL site.

To advance the cloth, you simply wind it forward by using the ratchet handle while the beater is in its forward position. Make sure the fell of the cloth does not go beyond the front of the beater in order not to have to wind it backwards. This easy, rapid method of advancing the cloth makes it practical to advance the cloth about every two inches of weaving. By maintaining this two inch weaving space, the swing of the beater and the shed angle are kept more nearly constant and this makes it much easier to weave a uniform fabric.

There are additional instructions there about rewinding back onto the warp beam, as well.

Hope this helps,  Teena Tuenge

sandra.eberhar…

Be sure you don't have threads that are tangled behind the heddles.

Group Audience