Thursday, February 25, 2010

Warping Photos

Today's post is a series of photos to show how I get 1200 threads under tension onto the loom without tangling. This is my first time winding a full-width beam or winding 75 yards of thread, so I invented the specifics of this system yesterday morning.

The 60" beam is divided into 30 2" sections. That means I only need to handle 40 threads at a time. (Only!? Ha!)

[40 cones feed 40 threads at once]

[From the top of the cones through a reed hung from the ceiling. Notice the truckload of black cloth awaiting delivery...]

[Then they go down through a raddle]

[And into the homemade tension box. This device ensures that all threads are under the same tension when they reach the loom.]

[Aren't they pretty?]

[The first hour's work.]

After creating and setting up this whole system yesterday, I wound 10 sections, 1/3 of the beam. Today I'll finish the other 20 sections and head back into familiar territory: threading.

1 comment:

Katherine Regier said...

You look like you have it completely under control. The only thing I would add is to makevthat final little reed in the tension box able to pivot. Drill the bottom little piece of wood so that it will pivot on a carriage bolt with a wing nut underneath. That way you can adjust the width of the line of threads so that they fit the section on the beam exactly. My AVL tension box works this way.