Even though I have what might be considered a relatively large space for my studio, there is never enough room for everything that needs to be done. At one point, to facilitate production, we decided that it would be most effective if one of us wound warps outside the loom while I was weaving the warp off in the loom. Doug therefore built a free standing rack that would allow the beaming to be done off loom on a 2nd warp beam. Since space in the studio was at a premium, the stand had to do multiple duty and also became the inspection/repair space.
Eventually when we were no longer required to be that efficient, the table morphed into a general workspace. And clutter collector.
Here is the table from behind. The wood thingee in the foreground right is the back of the loom - the AVL tension box rail. The upright of the stand has a groove into which one end of the 2nd beam sits and you can just make out the caster at the back corner. The table needs to move in order to make room for beaming the warp in the loom and various other things that need to be done.
Click to biggify the photos.
Showing the table top and shawl warp #10 in the process of being wound onto the spools, with boxes of weft yarns waiting to be used on the shawls.
The stand from the front. The table top is a cheap door. Doug made sure to get one that was level. It fits onto the uprights and is held in place with brackets and hooks. I covered the door with thick plastic but found that scissors didn't slide very well on it so then covered that with heavy cotton fabric.
The front cross brace has a groove for the AVL tension box. The stand is made from large lumber, put together with bolts and nuts and very sturdy. A power bar mounted to the front allows me to run my Chickadee electric rotary cutter, the ball winder, extra light, vacuum cleaner or whatever is necessary at the moment.
The back of the stand showing the two uprights where the beam sits. Down below you can just see the cloth storage roller waiting to be inspected/repaired. The cloth comes up over the back cross brace and onto the table top. Doug made a few extra rollers so that I can cut the apron out and move the woven web to the plain rollers which then get put into the stand at the back like this one.
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3 comments:
I love this table/stand set up. When I get a bigger loom I fully intend to reproduce something like this.
Clever! It seems that my lag time is always getting started on measuring the next warp. I guess the only explanation I have is I am afraid of messing it up so I put it off for as long as I can. My plan this time is to wind at least three warps ahead of time. We'll see if it works....I might be able to talk myself into it.
I quite often go on a warp winding spree for the small loom. But I generally work in 'series' so once I've got the warp designed it's just a matter of winding several different colourways. But it makes it easy to slam the next one into the loom when one is woven.
I've got about 20 warps that I just dyed for shawls for the small loom for when I'm done the current series on the AVL. :)
cheers,
Laura
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