This was in, oh, 1982. So the loom is ‘antique’ at 32 years old. That’s 32 years of production weaving, with literally miles and miles and miles of cloth over the beams.
As the weaver using it has aged, so has the loom. Bits and pieces of it are wearing out. And so it happened today that when I changed the pick wheel from 26 to 28, all of a sudden the auto-cloth advance would not work any longer.
Doug came into the studio as I was tearing it apart and helped diagnose the problem. It’s hard to see but there is a lever on the underneath of the pick wheel (that thing with the teeth) that prevents the wheel from slipping when the long rod pushes against the top pawl (I think that’s the correct word.)
Unfortunately the hole that the bottom lever sits in is worn. Badly. So badly the lever would not align properly and was preventing the mechanism from working to advance the cloth.
Doug was able to jury-rig a fix which I hope will see me through the last 5 yards of warp on the loom and then he will do a better fix which will hopefully allow the loom to continue to work as it is supposed to do.
While he is doing that I will hop on over to the Leclerc and finally deal with those painted warps for scarves. Hopefully it won’t take long to re-drill the hole and insert a bushing, but I’m not sure he can do it himself or if he’ll have to find a metal worker/machinist.
I’m hoping that he can get it fixed so that it lasts the rest of my weaving life. I rather suspect that when I’m done weaving, this loom will be, too.