Warp Swap

Having got the CB loom polished, assembled, beamed, entered and gated I settled down to weave but after awhile I started to have subversive thoughts. The gist of the thoughts were that it was silly to be weaving a twill scarf on this (CB) loom when I had a perfectly good semi automated loom (Glimakra 24S with Toika loom controller) that would do the job more efficiently. I debated with myself  on this for a while but was reluctant to logically follow an argument that would render this CB loom redundant and eBay fodder.  Then I remembered my lurking project that would probably be better on a completely manual loom - Overshot. I'll go through my reasoning in another post but my first priority was to clear the CB loom.

The objective as to move the warp from the CB loom to the Glimakra.

I cut out the weaving I had done and rewound the warp back on to the warp beam. I took the warp beam off the CB loom and suspended it over the warp beam of the Glimakra.

This picture shows the warp with its lease sticks in place and tied onto the apron rod of the Glimakra.

To get a bit of tension I slung a couple of weight over the CB warp beam.

The picture below shows the situation half way through the process. The warp is being wound from the CB warp beam onto the Glimakra warp beam. The CB warp beam is suspended from the Glimakra frame directly above the Glimakra warp beam. Lease sticks are in place to maintain the cross and tension is supplied by some weights.

It was not plain sailing all the way. At some time during the initial beaming of this warp I managed to cross over some of the bouts which meant that when winding from one beam to another there were threads that crossed over each other and were reluctant to move smoothly through the lease sticks and pilled together. The next time I beam a warp I shall pay particular attention to see if I can work out where my mistake lies.

It is all done now so on to the next stages. I have had a touch of flu over the past few days and have used my lucid moments to study overshot drafts and change my mind a hundred times as to which pattern shall be the first cab of the rank.

TURNING ON, OR BEAMING

Hand Loom Weaving Plain & Ornamental  (1910) - Luther Hooper



From what I have read the warp has to go on before doing the final adjustment to the shafts and tying up the treadles and lamms on a CB loom.


I wound a 9 yard warp and puzzled a bit as to how to get it on. Usually when putting a warp onto a conventional (as opposed to sectional) warp beam my wife grabs the ends, applies tension, and walks slowly towards the loom as I roll the warp onto the beam. My wife was out so what I came up with was this;


The warp was tied onto the back beam and went up to a raddle secured to the back of the loom framework.

(I am not going to get into the debate about the respective merits of traditional european style looms versus jack looms but I do like having places to put things; the light clamped to the top cross beam is very handy.)

The warp then went up and through another raddle that I secured to the top of the loom.

From here the warp went across to the top of the beater of a second loom that was conveniently situated nearby.

The animals on top of the loom controller are a frog, a penguin and a crab.

The warp ends dangled down and were weighted.

I was able to sit at the back of the loom and wind on the warp and put the sticks in. I am never quite sure how many to put in so I settled on 5 per revolution.


Every now and then I had to nip round to the front and adjust the weights It all went very smoothly.

(The computer screen in the background of this picture shows an overshot design, not mine, that I am working on, trying to get some interesting colours happening)

A happy beamer!