New project, we'll see how it unfolds.

[grweldon]

That is just SO cool!  You are very talented in many ways!

[SwampDonkey]

Here's an old Colonial pattern pillow case called "Braddock's Defeat". It was an old battle I guess and I take it he was defeated. Wove it like a tube and closed the ends. Stuffed it with a washable polyester pillow. Made two. Structure is overshot and lace.



In the shop now working on sectional beams for the warp roller. Will look about like a combine. ;D Followed by a tension box to use with it. 

Have a good one. ;)

[SwampDonkey]

Tension box with counter for sectional attachments I'm making for the warp roller at the back. I have made a couple 8 dent combs there until I get serious and get a couple 16 dent combs from LeClerc's. You can notice I'm missing a piece of spring wire that goes across the front comb so the yarn doesn't jump a dent, although I can't see how it would under tension. One on the back comb if you look hard. The package of Monkey Picture hanger wire was missing one wire from which that missing wire was to come from. It wasn't cheap for a bit of nothing, then to find out I got cheated.   :-\ Also have an in-line clamp coming for attaching the box to the beam. Right now, just a C clamp for testing. The counter there is from an old busted string box. Never throw stuff away that works. ;D



Video up

http://youtu.be/CCcv-dcjXts

[SwampDonkey]

I've been working the last few days on a new spool rack for sectional warping on my loom. So far I have the frame all jointed with mortise and tenon and ready for glue up. A spool rack is a spool rack I suppose. This one will hold 144 - 3" spools and made of hard maple. It is 78" to the top of the cross member and the feet are 24" long by 5" wide and 1-1/4" thick for stability. I think it will have enough weight to stay put. I will begin tomorrow at cutting slits in the middle upright and holes on the outside uprights for dowel rod to hold the spools.

Picture is of the rack free standing with no glue up yet.



I've made 80 of these 3" spools.

[Magicman]

    Been busy I see.   

[WDH]

The cold wind is howling and the glaciers are moving  :D.

Looking good, SD. 

[SwampDonkey]

Cut the slots and drilled the holes for the dowels to sit and cut 48 feet of 3/8" dowel rod. All glued up, a waiting for it to set up. Just sat the spools in there for show.   ;D

All ready for some Shellac tomorrow.





Someone told me I'd never use a dowel cutter, just a novelty item. Wrong!! I've cut close to 70 feet in this project alone. Nice to just go out in the stash and get a dowel rod or the means to make one. :D

[SwampDonkey]

I have been putting together some sectional dividers for my loom warp roller. Currently, I have applied one coat of linseed/turpentine mixture and will apply one more later. These sections are 61-3/4" long and a tie-on dowel rod is 60" long, 3/4" diameter. The dowel rod will seat into clothesline hooks that are ?-shaped. It will be set up so that the rod will hold the loop cord from the roller until the end at which point the rod will be pulled free of the hooks to weave the last 2 yards of warp up to the heddles.

The sections are SS rod bent on a forming block to a U shape by hand and inserted into spaced holes made by a drill press so depth is consistant and straight. Holes are drilled in the beams to attach to the roller. My roller is octagon shaped so the pieces will fit to a flat surface. The U rods are spaced so that 1" of space is between the U's, within a 1/32" and seated 1/2" into the wood. The U's are 3-1/4" tall above the wood and the wooden beams are 2-1/2" tall. On my roller this gives me a yard per revolution. Also, I cut my own dowel rod on my Veritas dowel cutter with kilned hard maple. Smooth as glass.



A close-up of some of that ray figure.



I will attach these to the warp roller in a day or two.

[Jeff]

Donk, I was watching an older episode of the Big Bang Theory yesterday, and it reminded me of you. ;)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0L1nunyHMp8

[isawlogs]

 "The uploader has not made this video available in your country".... Great  :-\  I can't see it.  I have been getting more of these stoopid messages with youtube type videos lately, hate being scensured, I can decide for myself what I want or not want to see.
A video of Sheldon wrapped in a blanket I am sure I can take .....  :

[SwampDonkey]

I attached the sectionals to the roller today.



This will help place real fine yarn on the roller with even tension and no tangles. The tension box a few posts up helps in this process and it meters off the yarn length as it's wound on the roller.  ;D

[Warbird]

Donk, I was watching an older episode of the Big Bang Theory yesterday, and it reminded me of you. ;)

!!!  Awesome.

SD, your project continues to amaze me.  I have almost no idea what some of the parts you've recently pictured are for.  But I continue to be amazed! 

[Norm]

Me too Donk, I don't comment much on this thread but read it every time it's updated. 

[Magicman]

My thought exactly.  I am fascinated and in awe of your knowledge and craftsmanship.   

[clww]

Like others, I don't understand most of it, but I continue to enjoy seeing it progress. Incredible craftsmanship.

[SwampDonkey]

I'll have to do up a video in a few days with my new additions working in unison.  Yip, all three additions will all work together.

[SwampDonkey]

Video Update.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NhSA8b4vkjc

On this project the cloth will be 10 yards long, 16.5" wide, with 24 threads (ends) per inch. That's over 4000 yards of thread. The cloth will be woven in sections, with breaks between every 24 inches, to make towels.

[isawlogs]

 I open this thread up and have gone through it  a few times yet and still have no clue to some of the terminoligie that you are using, I'm trying , I swear I am...  :D :D :D  Don't matter much as I like seeing this getting put together. 

[Lud]

Showed your recent adds to my wife, the weaver, and she said, " Amazing!" 8)

[WDH]

Sectional warping?  I read that and thought, "SD must be sawing elm"  :D.

Good stuff there, SD  8)

[SwampDonkey]

I did have an elm sawed out once, it was a 20" (top) and 8' log  I ended up with one board. The sawyer figured it was oak I think. I saw it stickered in his shed as I drove out to the gate. I said to myself, have a nice life. ;D The one board twisted like a cork screw for being a perfectly white, knot free log.

[SwampDonkey]

Latest weaving project is a peacock blue cotton bedspread of my own design. It is what they call an undulating twill. I will finish weaving this tomorrow.
The top 2/3rds of the photo is the underside of the cloth. The top side is showing below on the roller. You will noticed that the blue is 'reversed' from bottom to top side. But would look fine either way. There are nearly 1500 ends of thread, and 60" wide.

[isawlogs]

 How much time does it take tomake that ....

I like the design, so that means the wife won't  :D :D

[SwampDonkey]

The weaving part is probably 12-14 hours on this when it's done. The winding of the yarn onto the back roller takes a good day because I wind onto an equal number of spools to match the sett (threads or ends per inch). So if the piece in 4 yards long and you have a 60" wide weave for the cloth, with a sett of 24 epi, you need 24 spools with 240 yards per spool. I use a yardage counter, both to wind spools and then to wind onto the beam. If you don't you will probably miss a yard as your mind tends to think of other things by the time your onto the 10th inch, if not before. ;D Threading that many heddles can be done in a day and a half. After I wind each inch into the beam sectionals I run a piece of yarn through the ends to separate groups of threads into a 'cross'. This is done to keep the order of the yarn ends when threading the heddles and reed. Keeps threads from twisting and tangling into a mess. The reed took about 2.5 hrs to thread , I tied 3 threads per dent. My reed is 8 dents per inch, so that matches the sett of 24 epi. The time taken to tie on to the cloth bar was another couple or so. You have to adjust the tension most times when your tying on, because some of the first bouts get slack. Then I run cord, undulating through the ends where I tied on to even the threads out, takes about 10 minutes. Then it takes another 2 hours or so to tie up the treadles and harness  with 8 shafts.

If you were doing production weaving you wouldn't bother winding spools as they come on spools or cones already. But since I'm a hobbyist, I buy small amounts and don't make work out of it. So I spread out the time. And also you would possibly weave 50 yards or more of cloth for several blankets or spreads.

In my case, time is of no consequence because I just do short projects and move onto the next creation. And just work at it a couple hours here and then. I don't do production weaving, so that increases set up time.

Once you get a piece off the loom, your not done, you have to take care of the ends. Like doing a fringe, a blanket stitch or hem or whatever.

As one fella put it, time well wasted. :D :D

[Magicman]

That is all mind boggling to me......but very interesting.