Assembly

All the clean, dry pieces lined up in the shed

Post-assembly on 10 June 2012

Sunday afternoon, Dan and I went to the Garrison House for a little loom assem-bl-y.  (Pronounced like Norm says it!)  The wood looks very pretty all cleaned up.  We had a few glitches along the way, but were able to correct them as we went (like getting it together and then realizing that the back beam was still on the floor behind us - doh!)  We took lots of measurements so Dan could work on a few replacement parts: 3 wedges, a pin for the brake, treadles, and some wooden screws.

There are several reeds of varying dents.  I'll talk about those on another day.  There's also 2 sides (the left and right) of  a large warping board. We couldn't find the top and bottom, but those should be easy to replicate once we've got the loom taken care of.
 
The biggest problem we ran across is the fact that the warp beam is the same length as the structural beams across the bottom and top of the back of the loom.  Of course, that means that the beam rubs on the uprights and doesn't move. This makes me wonder if the loom was actually ever used.  There are no definitive signs of wear from threads or cloth.

The warp beam is too long and rubs on the uprights.

It's a tight fit!

Me contemplating the options

 After looking at the geometry and taking some measurements, it looks like unless we want to leave the frame slightly separated (which would affect the strength and stability of the loom), we are going to have to shave down the end of the beam near the brake. We haven't done it yet, so if anyone has any other suggestion, please let us know.

Cloth beam brake mechanism

These are the only metal pieces on the loom.  Dan had to reattach the "saw blade" ratchet to the end of the beam. Oh, I think the roller in the brake pulley is also metal.

The old string heddles

Another thing that's going to take some research and time is making new heddles.  The ones that were on it are probably linen.  They are all connected, made out of a single piece of thread. Does anyone know of any existing directions on how to make these? I have access to the T-shaped pieces of a heddle and harness maker (Figure 40 of Marion Channing's "The Textile Tools of Colonial Homes".)  I do have the four wooden heddle sticks for the tops and bottoms of the harnesses.

The Beginning

 The Old Chelmsford Garrison House in Chelmsford, MA, USA has had an old loom up in the attic of one of the buildings for years.  I have often talked about moving it down to an accessible part of the property and setting up for use.  Today, I finally started.  It's a cantilevered 2-harness counterbalance barn frame loom.  Most of the parts are there. It's missing the harness pulleys and some (wooden) screws and the treadles.  Fortunately, my husband, Dan, is very talented in the woodshop, and he'll be able to replace most of the missing parts.  The pulleys will be the trickiest part.


 Today, with the help of our teenage kids, Andre and Baylee, we disassembled the loom and took it out to the grass, washed it down with a solution of Murphy's Oil Soap, let it dry, then brought it into the shed of Garrison House, where it is to be assembled.

Baylee taking the beater out of the attic

One of the sides of the loom.  The bottom is on the left.

The second bucket of cleaning solution

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Washing in progress

Andre carrying the warp beam to the Garrison House.

The process took about 2 hours for 4 people.


The next step is reassembly and some minor repairs and replacements.  Making new heddles is going to be a big task, but that's for another day as well.