Triangle Looms
I found out about triangle looms in the summer of 2012. So of course, I had to make one. Hubby John & I went looking through the woodpile to find something special. John found some mahogany decking material that came from the "sweet 16 tug" that sat at the Bourne Bridge Rotary for many years. He had sweet talked the foreman who was in charge of demolishing the tug into giving him some of the deck. Then it sat in John's woodpile waiting for the "right" project. I'm kind of flattered that he gave up some of the wood to make me a loom. You can still see the nail holes along the top edge. We are in the process of designing a loom that could easily be taken apart to store in a tube.
Folding Loom
I wanted a small folding loom for my birthday last year. I showed John pictures of commercially available looms. He nearly fell off his chair when he saw the price. Then he uttered those famous words "we can make one." I rolled my eyes, since he has a habit of saying that infamous sentence. But he proved me wrong: we spent my birthday weekend in the workshop making a loom out of cedar. John even turned the beams and the takeup knobs out of cedar. He machined the heddle and the ratchets and pawls out of HDPE (plastic) The only two pieces we didn't make were the knobs that fold the loom. We hope to replace them eventually. I knicknamed my birthday loom "little guy." That was my Springer Spaniel's nickname. The loom is little and sweet, just like he was. The loom weaves nicely, but there's a few things I'd like to tweak in the design. I'm hoping to have version two ready to warp this winter.
Inkle Loom
This past weekend, I said to John that I would love an inkle loom. I showed him some pictures and he once again said "we can make that." This time I didn't roll my eyes. Instead I followed him out to the workshop and helped him pick out some curly maple. Then while John fired up the table saw, I went over to the chop saw and cut up some delrin posts. Next John glued the wooden pieces together while I drilled and tapped the rods. Half an hour later, I had an inkle loom. John is now designing a version that could fold up for easy storage or to take on a trip. I will post a better picture soon.
PVC Floor Loom
This year, my birthday present involved a trip to the Home Depot plumbing aisle. I had seen pictures of a PVC four shaft table that I thought was pretty cool. John's assessment of the loom was "that's pretty nice, but we could build a pvc floor loom." He was right; we are in the process of building a floor loom that is almost entirely made of pvc, although we did need to use some aluminum extrusion in a few places. It has a custom made pvc friction brake & a custom made plastic ratchet and pawl. I am also making a weaving bench out of a plastic five gallon bucket. PVC = tinker toys for grown ups. Here's some pictures of the loom build. We hope to finish it in the next week or two.