Sweet

 

fell is 4 inches from the breast beam

with beater forward up against the fell, the web is just touching the shuttle race

with the fell now 3 inches from the breast beam...

the beater is now 'scraping' across the web as the web needs to bend to get by the shuttle race

There is talk of 'sweet spots' and how important to keep the fell within the 'sweet spot' between the breast beam and the beater.

On a loom like the Megado, it seems like there is a huge space between the breast beam and the beater - and there is.  That means that the sweet spot on the Megado is larger than most looms.

But!  It isn't as large as some people might think.

Generally I set the fell at about 4" from the breast beam because any closer and the beater begins to scrape against the web.  With this particular cloth that isn't a huge problem, but if I were weaving something less stable the beater can begin to shove the picks out of their proper alignment.

And unless you look underneath at your web, you might never see what was happening because it's all happening below, out of sight.  Until you do get to see the web when it comes off the loom, or you notice something peculiar on the cloth beam.

Likewise I tend to advance the fell when the fell is still a distance away from the beater, due to the tension forces on the warp.

What do I mean?  I've written about tension forces on the warp extensively in Stories from the Matrix, but essentially the closer the fell moves to the beater, the tighter the tension becomes, the more the weaver has to work to open the shed, even as the shed reduces in size.  Yes, even on the Megado, which has a 'floating' breast beam.

How do I know?  Because I pushed to see how far I could successfully weave before needing to advance the fell.  

Even so, the distance between the breast beam and beater is such that I can easily weave about 3" before I need to advance the fell, compared to *most* (not all) looms where the distance is between 1 and 2 inches, depending on the loom and how much distance there is between the breast and back beam and the position of the beater at 'rest' against the castle.

Recently I saw someone comment that the Louet floating breast beam means they don't have to adjust their tension.  Which isn't actually accurate.

What the floating breast beam does is to move slightly when the shed opens in order to keep the tension on *all* the warp threads more equal.

With a rising shed loom, the tendency is for the ends that are lifted to be under greater tension than those left down.  Louet has come up with some nifty engineering with reduces that tension inequality.

But the loom setting your tension for you?  Nope.  You still have to do that every time you advance the  warp.

The only exception to that is a loom with a live weight brake system.  Once the tension is set, it will remain the same throughout until you change something.  Even so, the 'live' weight may need to be adjusted as the circumference of the warp beam changes.  The larger the circumference, the more weight is needed to hold tension on the warp.  As that circumference reduces, the weight may need to be reduced.

As always...it depends...

Tentatively

Since I have only woven one shawl (one third of the warp) I'm only saying that the collar is looking promising.  In order to determine if it is going to work the way I want it to, I need to finish this warp and see if it works well, right to the very end.  I also need to put another warp on that requires higher tension.  With a special order of six place mats needing to go on as soon as these shawls are complete, I should know fairly soon.

When I looked at photos of older looms with the live weight tension system, they all seemed to have this much larger diameter collar for the cord to run around.  I think it is because a better ratio between where the cord is holding tension and the diameter of the warp is required.

The larger collar accomplishes a couple of things.  One, it's round, not hexagonal so the cord has a smooth surface to slip on, not the hexagonal planes of the beam.  Two, the much larger diameter means the cord has a lot more surface to grip and I think that is why so much less weight is needed.

With the cord just wrapped around the beam, I was using 3 pounds on the 'light' end of the cord, 25 pounds on the 'heavy' end.  With the collar, I've got 3 pounds on the 'light' end, but just 13 pounds on the heavy end.  The result?  Less effort required to advance the warp.

I'm sure my neck/shoulder will thank me!

But I need to finish this warp and see how the tension holds right from the beginning to the end.  Plus how it works on a warp requiring much higher tension.  The collar is actually larger than the diameter of the shawl warp which is 9 meters long, so it should allow my maximum warp length of 11 meters with no problems.

Testing proceeds...

A Few Picks

The beginning of a new 'week', another milestone.

I have been so very good about not doing anything I should not during the 6 week healing phase of this journey.  Now I'm well past that and getting anxious to reclaim my life.  I have boxes and boxes filled with warps waiting to be woven and two looms with warps poised to be turned into cloth.

This morning I decided it was time to try weaving.

I purposefully left the small loom set up with a warp that required practically nothing in terms of beat.  It is a textured silk (I was told it was referred to as 'gimp' not 'boucle' because there are no loops as such, but made from one very highly twisted main singles plus binders which torques and creates a textured yarn) and set very openly at 10 epi.

The goal is to weave it at 10 ppi, which means the weft picks are merely squeezed gently into place.

My left hand is still numb which is making shuttle handling a bit of a challenge but I was able to weave about 15" before I decided that was probably enough to be starting with.

The live weight tension system is also helping because very little effort is required to roll the fell forward.

Ultimately I think if I weave for a few minutes then go do something else for a while then weave for a few minutes, I will gradually build up strength without stressing my body too much.  I might ask a friend to come help dress the loom again once this warp is off, though.

Simplicity Itself

I think I posted this photo once already but it pretty much shows everything that needs to be seen.

The live weight tension system is simplicity itself.

One long cord, long enough to wrap around the beam three times which will support the weight of whatever you use to provide the tension (via the weight used) plus a small counter weight on the other end of the cord.

My loom is just 36" weaving width and I rarely dress this loom full width so providing tension on just one end is fine.  A wider loom might require the weight at either end to make sure it stays put.

Kati Meek has published a monograph on this tool and the warping trapeze (as she calls it - same idea as my warping valet) so do buy her book to get the details.

The original brake has not been removed from the loom because when I'm beaming a warp, I need that brake to keep the warp rolling on with good tension.  Once the warp is dressed, the cord gets wrapped around the beam, the weight applied (in this instance 25 pounds at the heavy end, 2 pounds - I think - it might only be 1 pound as I was tweaking the system over the weekend), lock the loom's brake system in the 'off' position and away you go.

At the moment I'm weaving scarves which don't require a whole lot of weight.  If my warp was wider or required higher tension such as place mats, I would add more weight to the cord.  Up to 40 pounds, according to Kati.  The counter weight needs to be sufficient only to prevent the heavy end from sliding down - gravity, you know?

The AVL has a type of live weight system so I'm used to the warp beam 'rocking' as I open the shed, but if you've never experienced that, you might find it a bit off putting at first.  This is normal!  It's not unlike the Louet beam that rocks - a little disconcerting the first time I wove on one, but you do get used to it when you realize it's not a bad thing.  Quite the opposite in fact.  There is less stress on the warp yarns when the system has a little 'give' in it.

The big thing is that I no longer have to reach out to the right with my foot and depress the brake release.  With the beginnings of arthritis in my right hip, I needed to reduce the stress on that joint.  And once the tension is set, all you have to do is just crank the fell line forward - the tension will stay the same from one end to the other - unless the cord gives way or something.    But as soon as you put the weights back onto the cord, you're back to where you were.  Automagically, as it were.

Scary Warps

Doug has done some more tweaking to the loom and I'm dressing it with another painted warp for scarves so I can double check the live weight tension system, which also seems to need a bit of tweaking.  I had wrapped the cable in one direction and found that it was creeping towards the warp. Which would be okay except that when it got to the apron rod, the rod would get wound underneath the cable and then dump the weights off - which was kind of counter productive.

So I'm going to wind the cable on the other direction and see if it will stay put.  If not I might have to get Doug to put a higher flange on the warp beam at that end.

I had thought there were only four painted warps left but discovered this 'parrot' coloured warp in a box - obviously way back in July I had started to get it ready to be woven and then the box got shoved in a corner and forgotten.  I won't get all five warps woven, never mind fringe twisted or wet finished, but I'm hoping to at least get this one done.  I'm low on inventory of 'true' reds so adding a bit more breadth to my inventory would be A Good Thing.

And Meg has issued a challenge to take really nice (beauty shots?) photos of textiles so I tried getting a good shot of my tea towels this morning.

Since this photo was to be for several purposes, I think I did okay.  What do you think?

I think I need to work on it some more...but not bad for a first effort...