More tension in my life, please!
This falls under the category of "I didn't know I really wanted one, until I saw one at a great price."
A major part of weaving well is maintaining even warp tension.
The whole process of preparing the warp threads on a board or mill is to keep the individual threads in order, at the correct length, and with an even tension.
If one's loom has a sectional beam, then one way to warp it involves using a tension box.
Here are a few shots from Camilla Valley Farms of the new Leclerc Tension Box they offer:
While my Macomber has a plain beam, the Leclerc Nilus came with a sectional beam that I went to great lengths to restore.
The beam before:
In the back of my mind, I knew I might want a tension box at some point in the future, but they are expensive ($159 for the tension box alone), and they are usually used in coordination with a metered yarn counter (to keep track of how many yards/meters are going on each section of the beam), as well as spool racks (and spool winders).
Thus, my immediate plan was just warp the sectional beam like a plain one.
Thursday evening, I put a post on one of the Facebook weaving groups offering the old Leclerc 36" 12-dent reed to anyone who wanted it, for the cost of shipping. As I fielded messages and interest regarding that, I noticed someone placed an ad for this:
It was advertised as new-in-the-box, but I could see it was the older version of Leclerc tension box; however, this one had a meter to go with it. New meters/warp counters are another $114.
The seller was asking $125, plus shipping.
I did not hesitate, I contacted the seller immediately and bought it.
They just arrived!
They are in fabulous condition and do not appear to have been used, but even if they had, I would still be tickled.
The only thing, I have to assume the warp counter is in meters because it was made in Canada, and there is nothing to indicate whether it counts in Metric or Imperial units. I will definitely test it out before I use it.
The biggest difference between the old and new boxes are the number of tension dowels. The old style has only three, and the new style has four. Also, all four of the dowels appear to be removable on the new one, while only one is removable on the old. This helps to align the threads more easily.
As the new box has all removable dowels, I suspect, if I contact the right person, I may be able to buy a fourth one for my unit. At the very least, the handsome husband could fashion one for me, as it is a solid piece of dowel with a bolt inserted to one end on which a washer and wingnut are attached.
Here are a couple of quick snaps:
If anyone is interested in how these actually work, here is a link to the homepage for Leclerc looms, scroll down to the bottom of the page, there is a video (for which I could not find a hyperlink).
It's a long video, I admit to skimming my way through it to get a general idea.
If anyone is looking for me, I am knee deep in weaving stuff in my studio!!
Happy Crafting!
A major part of weaving well is maintaining even warp tension.
The whole process of preparing the warp threads on a board or mill is to keep the individual threads in order, at the correct length, and with an even tension.
If one's loom has a sectional beam, then one way to warp it involves using a tension box.
Here are a few shots from Camilla Valley Farms of the new Leclerc Tension Box they offer:
As well as the older version:
While my Macomber has a plain beam, the Leclerc Nilus came with a sectional beam that I went to great lengths to restore.
The beam before:
The beam after:
In the back of my mind, I knew I might want a tension box at some point in the future, but they are expensive ($159 for the tension box alone), and they are usually used in coordination with a metered yarn counter (to keep track of how many yards/meters are going on each section of the beam), as well as spool racks (and spool winders).
Thus, my immediate plan was just warp the sectional beam like a plain one.
Thursday evening, I put a post on one of the Facebook weaving groups offering the old Leclerc 36" 12-dent reed to anyone who wanted it, for the cost of shipping. As I fielded messages and interest regarding that, I noticed someone placed an ad for this:
The seller was asking $125, plus shipping.
I did not hesitate, I contacted the seller immediately and bought it.
They just arrived!
They are in fabulous condition and do not appear to have been used, but even if they had, I would still be tickled.
The only thing, I have to assume the warp counter is in meters because it was made in Canada, and there is nothing to indicate whether it counts in Metric or Imperial units. I will definitely test it out before I use it.
The biggest difference between the old and new boxes are the number of tension dowels. The old style has only three, and the new style has four. Also, all four of the dowels appear to be removable on the new one, while only one is removable on the old. This helps to align the threads more easily.
As the new box has all removable dowels, I suspect, if I contact the right person, I may be able to buy a fourth one for my unit. At the very least, the handsome husband could fashion one for me, as it is a solid piece of dowel with a bolt inserted to one end on which a washer and wingnut are attached.
Here are a couple of quick snaps:
If anyone is interested in how these actually work, here is a link to the homepage for Leclerc looms, scroll down to the bottom of the page, there is a video (for which I could not find a hyperlink).
It's a long video, I admit to skimming my way through it to get a general idea.
If anyone is looking for me, I am knee deep in weaving stuff in my studio!!
Happy Crafting!
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