Man Shed

Mon 1 Jan 2018, 21:37 (last edited on Mon 1 Jan 2018, 22:21)

The trouble with that loom Jim is that it's basically what I bought from you with added treadles (foot peddles). It won't have enough heddles (the bits on the shafts for the warp to go through), and because that type is no longer in production it means refitting the entire loom - yours arrived at my house with slightly less than 400, it now has 1000 so I can weave fine silk, and should I add more shafts, I'll probably still need more heddles. The original wire heddles can't be mixed with the new insert eye ones because there's a tiny difference in length, so it's meant totally replacing them. The overall width of the eBay loom is the same width as yours - too narrow, I want at least 3' weaving width, preferably 4' and there are only 4 shafts. I want 8 minimum, preferably 16. The more shafts, the more complex the design you can weave.

I'm fairly sure that even doubling the width and shafts of a flying 8 will work out a lot less than the almost £1k I'd be looking for a secondhand Toika or Glimåkra, or almost £8k for a shiny new Louet megado. Also, with a flying 8 I can spin flax and make my own linen heddles, which is what always used to be done, whereas the Dryads will only take metal heddles because of the shaft design.

Adding new shafts to the Dryad I got from you isn't technically difficult, it's just that I don't have the tools or space to do it. And it won't cost anything like as much as replacing the heddles did!

ETA to cost out the basics of what I want to do to my present loom, the one I got from you - 2x3' long horizontal wooden 3"x1" for the struts between front and back beam; 2x1.5 same dimensions for each set of four shafts to hang in, 1x2' to go across the top of the castle to stabilise it. Totally new set of shafts could be Scandinavian style with just dowel for the heddles to hang from, so 8x2' pieces per set of four shafts. Then I just need to work out the lever system (or convert it to foot power). And then putting it together involves cuttting the grooves in the wood for the shafts to run in and drill holes to fix it together. Not a complex job really :-)