I moved this here from a general posting by Peg. Cherre you can read the complete thread here: http://weavolution.com/forum/weaving/macomber-pulls-weaving-apart-23718#comment-73796
I have a problem. I had thought it was me, but did an experiment and now I'm pretty sure it's not me, it's the loom.
The experiment was to weave the same pattern, same fiber, same sett on both my 8H Mac & my 8H Varpa, with a purpose of deciding which loom to sell. Since each loom has some real benefits, this is a tough choice I have to make.
I wove with 8/2 rayon in a pinwheel pattern. Sett at 18 EPI on both looms. Although I tried to make them the same, if anything the tension was tighter on the Varpa than on the Mac. I had the same problem on the Mac that I've had before...the weaving is fine on the top of the loom, but weft threads separates, I think as it goes over the breast beam. I had thought that I may be causing the problem by having my stomach brush the front beam, so this time I was very careful NOT to do that. But here are two pix to demonstrate what I mean. The first photo is the cloth before it goes around the breast beam.
In the second I'm spreading the warp apart with my fingers so that you can see the weft threads underneath. The red lines point to where the weft has pulled apart in 2 pattern repeats and crammed in another.
So all you Mac users, is this a typical problem that can be easily resolved? If so, what's the fix? If not, I guess the problem with weaving quality will make my decision on which loom has to go -- because this fiber, this weight, this sett is fairly typical for me, it'll have to be the Mac.
Thanks for your insights.