The Hawthorne Works

I’ve been busy in the shop on the NilMira. After further study of draw loom design from the Continent and Sweden it appears that neither the Mira or the Nilus will be part of the game. They have given me valuable dimensions and insight into the mechanics of things, so we must part ways. That means the Nilus will once again be for sale (the loom is unmodified from its original form, and is still one of the nicest of the 4s Jack looms.)

Using the Jack system on a drawloom has some limitations I don’t want to accept in the long term. That being said, the final model will be fully capable of reproducing Hooper’s “New Drawloom,” or Hindson’s “Designer’s Drawloom” which used the jack system for the ground, and also anything done on a counterbalance or countermarche. Any countermarche can be rigged as a jack very simply, so it’s not a large problem. The final design will (I hope) be able to make anything a Scandinavian loom can weave also.

 As neither the Nilus or the Mira will be a significant part of my design, I’m holding a contest for a new name for the Hawthorne Drawbeast.

The winner will recieve a useful shuttle in almost new condition. This is an essay contest, so write as if you wanted a perfectly good shuttle, and post ‘em on this blog. As much as I appreciate the private emails, traffic has been slow here, and I’ve got to spark things back up.

The Drawbeast is looking more Medieval, as she now has most of her castle and the bulk of her drawbridge. I’ve settled on Hooper’s design for the drawbridge, as it is fast and versatile when compared to individual draw handles. That being said, if I find the system flawed, I can revert to the classical system in an hour or so of shop time.

Some eye candy follows. I’m driving down to visit my Wood Dawg Darwin tomorrow, where I expect to find enough planks to finish off.

Here’s a side view:

Sorry for the clipping, there’s only so far back I can move in the shop.

Here’s a three-quarter view from the other side:

One can see clamps stuck all over the beast. I lost the bulk of them today, as I completed a lot of joinery. You may ask why I use this method of working from mock-ups or prototypes. The first is that drawing a item in three dimensions takes as much time or more than building an item. The other thing is that unless one draws in full-scale, it’s difficult to see the relationships between various parts. Some of the clearances on the loom are tight, and would be difficult to reconcile on paper.

Here’s a top view of the comber boards. As made, “The Drawbeast” will allow 40 pattern shafts. After checking the dimensions, all 40 shafts could be woven on the Hooper-Hindson Designer’s draw loom. If one wishes to use long-eye heddles and weave the Swedish way, the first eight pattern shafts cannot be used. Still, 32 pattern shafts are a bunch. I designed on wide tolerances, and I expect this could be expanded to 60 British-style shafts or 48 Swedish without modifying the frame.

Did I mention drilling holes precisely is one of the biggest challenges of loom construction? Here are 80 very nicely done ones. The drill drifted off on one, which I patched. I’ll give another shuttle to anyone who can locate it from the unretouched photo.

I made significant progress on the draw system today, but photos will have to wait. It’s been a long day.

Mum sent a postcard from France. She’s been to Monaco, Cannes, and is at last report in a chilly chateau in the Bas Alps. Not bad for a former hippie lady.

Tim

This entry was posted on Thursday, May 14th, 2009 at 12:52 am and is filed under Loom Tech. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.