Replacing Parts on the Loom

The Loom Room, yes we have given what was the back bedroom a name, is still a bit of a mess but yesterday I started the loom upgrade. The parts I ordered from Macomber arrived earlier in the week so I decided to start on the loom this weekend. 

To start I replaced the aprons. This entails removing the old apron(s) and the staples that attach it to the beam. I used a set of pliers to grab onto the staple and to pull it out but in many cases it was impossible to get a grip on it so I actually ripped the apron off the beam; thus allowing a needle nose pliers to get under it and then I could push it up a bit until the regular pliers could grab it and remove it.

Then I placed the old apron on top of the new apron and using a colored pencil, I transferred the placement of the staple. Since the line of where the apron is was to be placed was still visible on the beam, I then put the first and last staple in using a hammer and needle nose pliers to hold the staple. Then I worked my way across the beam, driving in the staples into the existing holes. 

The next task was to replace the old, crumbly pad on the beater and under the jack levers.  The pads on the beater were held by tack nails and so they were easy to remove by just pulling them out. The pads under the jack levers were glued on and with just a slight tug they peeled off. Getting to these was also easy since I had removed the heddle frames so all the jack levers were in the up position. I just laid down a line of glue and placed the new ones where the old ones had been but due to the jack levers being up, I could not use them to apply pressure to hold the pads in position until the glue dried so I used painters tape to hold them down and prevent them from sliding.

Next up was restringing the sectional beam. I put my raddle on the edge of the castle and then ran strings from each hook in a section up to the raddle and back to the hook and then tying it off. Afterwards I wrapped each string around the beam and hooked it on a post so they are tidy and not hanging loose.

The last and frustrating bit was hooking up the brake system. The loom has 2 beams one regular and one sectional, the regular beam has a ratchet and pawl break and the sectional has a drum/friction break.  The sectional beam was hooked up to the release pedal when the loom was moved to the house but I could not get the beam to rotate when the release pedal was depressed AND some of the eye bolts were bent and it just looked like it had been put together to hold it and not to necessarily work.  I pulled out a diagram from a Macomber document of how to setup a second beam with a drum break and how my loom is configured does not match; in the diagram the drum break is on the top beam and mine is on the bottom.  I worked on this for over an hour and could not get a functioning configuration with the sectional beam and drum brake hooked to the release pedal. ​

Then I decided to take the original pictures and I sent them to Macomber along with my questions about how do I get the drum break to work and do I need to move things around to accomplish this? I expect to hear from later next week.

In the mean time, I did work on hooking the regular beam to the release brake, and that works like a charm; there wasn't a chain long enough to do this so i used 2 small chains and a S hook in between.

Finally, using painters tape, taped the cable for the drum brake down so it isn't flopping around and I put the extra chains, eye bolts, wing nuts and springs in a bag until I can configure everything properly

Here is the final picture of the loom. I put the beater bar back on and put one of the new reeds in.
Today I am putting the new inset eye heddles on the frames and I will re-hang them.