Wilhemina

Schacht Spindle Company in Boulder, Colorado is open again!

On Thursday, the parts I ordered back in early March arrived.

Saturday morning, the sweet husband worked his magic, and within half an hour switched out the hub on the warp beam to accommodate a new crank handle and replaced the entire brake assembly.

Twenty minutes later I had a short, narrow warp beamed of 8/2 tencel with a sett of 24, 4 yards long and 7.5” wide.

It was a throw away warp, just to test the loom.

In short order, the heddles were threaded and the reed sleyed.

I was pleasantly surprised how comfortable she is to thread with the reed and breast beam removed.

I could really get into the loom, not quite as far as with a Macomber, but a comfortable distance without having to reach too far.

Before long, I had lashed on and tested the shed.

Wow! Now that is a beautifully wide and clean shed!

For a while now, I have an idea for floating overshot.

I know, I am weird. These things come to me all the time, some stick, others do not.

My thought was to start and stop the overshot pattern (in 5/2 bamboo with an 8/2 tencel tabby) away from the edges and allow it to “float” in a sea of even weave.

I did not have a specific draft in mind and printed the first one I came across.

Oh!

I need to tweak my execution, but this is definitely doable and worth repeating!

Next week, we deliver this loom (Schacht Standard 46”) to her new home and pick up the Baby Macomber 24” 8-shaft portable I am trading looms for!

This is not the actual loom, but a photo from the Macomber Loom site:

For a recap of the Schacht upgrades, I made aprons for the fabric and warp beams. There is a tutorial here.

This loom experienced some water at some point, and a couple of the shafts were warped. Before I replaced them, I decided to see if we could straighten them out. I wrapped the warped sides with wet towels for half an hour, then clamped them between two boards for a couple of days.

One shaft was right as rain after that.

A second one required a longer soak and clamp. This second one was a bit more problematic. The wood swelled after this process and did not shrink back to size after drying.

New shafts are $88 without hardware.

I took a palm sander to it and coated all of the shafts with Howard’s Feed & Wax, as I had done a couple of times with the entire loom.

This did the trick and all harnesses are smoothly moving up and down now.

Yay!

She is outfitted with 1,500 or so shiny new heddles, as well as a brand, spanking new 12-dent reed!

She has a new hub and crank handle on the back beam.

She is also sporting a new brake assembly kit.

I am actually impressed with this loom. Schacht has built a stable loom with simple mechanics.

The ratchet and pawl on the cloth beam are as low tech as they come.

But they work just fine.

The instructions with the brake assembly were thorough and clear.

Schacht’s customer service is excellent.

I am very pleased with this loom and ecstatic she has a home!!