This terse beginning is to express my indignation at the Meyer 12 shaft loom. The last blog said it had taken some effort (mostly on the part of the Handweaver's Studio) to discover that, while all the 8 shaft looms appear to use Phillips No 2 screws, my loom uses Posirdrive No 2 screws - and it requires a considerable amount of force to undo the screws. The shafts themselves are good - black enamelled metal soldered/welded together on three sides and a fourth side which is screwed on.
The problem is with the attachment of the shafts to the levers which move teh shafts up and down. A length of Tex-Solv cord is used which is looped into a hole in the top bar of each shaft. The cord then goes through three holes and onto the wooden lever which move teh shaft up and down. Problem. The assembly was quite clearly done by putting the cord in completely, then applying a match to each end - which makes the cord dimensions greater than those of the three holes. What is more, if the re-assembly is carried out in the original way, the cord has to be inserted in the first hole (which is too small for it) and blind because tthe cord is coming up from below the loom top and you cannot see still less get your hands in.
Last night, I spent two hours adding 50 heddles to each of four shafts. This morning, I decided to abandon this method of cording and put in a variant of my own. This started at the top of the loom where there is good visibility. I anchored the cord to the shaft lever using a Tex-Solv anchor. Now the original method used a very small Tex-Solv anchor and I replaced it with a standard one. No harm done, the lever shaft does not need to be space-saving. I could then poke the cord through the three drilled holes and into the hole in the metal shaft, then used the very small Tex-Solv anchor to secure it.
The loom from below. I haed it propped upon end while I worked on it. Note how closely packed the shafts are.
The top of the shaft is away from the top of the loom and there is space to get a hand in to secure the cord. Apart from being much easier and faster, it is better because I can adjust the length of the cord at either end, All in all, an exhausting day.
The last four shafts of the twelve took me 40 minutes to add 50 heddles to each and re-assemble. And when the original cord had a lump on one end so it would not go through the drilled holes, I replaced it. I replaced four cords. It all seems to function correctly after all the trauma and is all tied up ready for me to start threading up. I am going to warp up this one from front-to-back because I am not at all sure I am doing to get all the warp length on to this dinky little loom. If I warp up front to back, I can retain the cross, cut off any excess and tie it on when what's on has been woven off. One additional thing I did was colour-code the shafts. 8 shafts is fine but 12 shafts needs colour coding in my opinion.
A close-up of the new fastenings on the shaft levers - on the left while the small original one is on the right.
Adding extra heddles to a shaft. If the side bar is swivelled on one screw then it holds one set of heddles ends securely while the other ends are slid on to the upper bar.
I have been to the first evening class on cameras. I learnt a lot even in the first session. We are still snowed in and I whistled up a taxi to get to teh college. It is snowing heavily at this moment.
Oh, poor you. This surely hit the pain threshold very quickly. I hope it's all to rights now, and that the loom behaves itself once you begin weaving.
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