When last we visited Sort of Sectional Warping for the TC2 I had warped my Louet Delta using the sectional warping kit and then transferred the warp to my TC2 beam using the supplemental warp beam kit (with a twist) for that same loom. So far, that warp has been great but I wanted to try warping directly to the TC2 beam as there was a little wonkiness on one bout during the transfer and that process added time that did not add value.
So back to the drawing board I laser cut slats with holes to fit my Louet sectional U’s. My laser cutter has about an 18″ maximum and my baltic birch wood was 6mm so the final design required 3 layers with staggered joints X 4. I learned a few things with this process so on the next go round – yes there will be one more – I will do things a little differently but more on that later. I was able to line up the holes pretty well and the staggered joints worked well. After gluing them together I drilled holes in line with the U holes to anchor the wood slats to the slots in the aluminum beam. I put machine bolts in the holes, head side down, and slid the slats into place. Those pesky bolts want to unscrew themselves so you have to continue to tighten them as the process goes on but since I put the bolts on the accessible side that has not been so crazy. I used texsolv to anchor a steel rod between the slots mimicking my Louet sectional setups After sliding the slats onto the beam I put the end stops on and slid the whole thing onto the support I made for version 1.
Here’s the setup. My Delta loom is the star of this show. Her big sister, Megado, is in the background. the newest member of the family has her own room – what a diva. See my little Stickley stool in the foreground? That thing is just the right height for these low loom activities.
Zooming in you can see that the Frankenbeam support is held onto the loom in a groove made for a supplemental beam by the unseen hero of weaving, an Irwin Quick Grip clamp. The TC2 beam is supported by an ash board with laser cut ends to support a makeshift rod. The supplemental beam kit ratchet is attached also. I don’t use the crank in this version so the ratchet and crank slots would not be necessary if I keep working with it this way.
I use a C clamp to lock the TC2 Frankenbeam to the support but only after aligning the sectional holes to the Delta’s sectional holes above.
I decided to use the Delta’s sectional beam to help align the bout as it winds onto the Frankenbeam and that turned out to be a really helpful idea.
Now that the Frankenbeam is in position, it is time to wind. I use a Sawyer Bee Warping Square to wind my bouts. I just can’t get behind winding all of those spools which in this case would be 90 to get a 2 inch section. Instead I use 6 spools and my Square. For 90 threads the longest warp I can comfortably wind on my Square is 15.5 yards. More than that and there is just too much fiddling to keep it on the pegs. Ultimately I would like a larger capacity Square but Sawyer Bee doesn’t appear to be in business anymore so I will just have to get to the drawing board at some point.
Here’s a video that shows the winding process. My 250 gram spools of Cottolin are in Weck jars on the floor. When the spools are big I can get some twisting that has to be briefly sorted. Otherwise this approach is relatively painless. For 15.5 yards I wind the 6 threads 6 times around. I check the counter to make sure I have 6 revolutions before I hook the thread group in a little raddle at the top and then start the process over again. You will see that after every 2 cycles I compact the thread to keep the pegs clear. The 6 thread cross is made at the beginning of the circuit.
Next up I move the Warping Square inline with the Frankenbeam setup to wind each 2 inch bout onto the beam. I have used long lead cords to stretch the warp as close to the heddles as I can to enable more weavable warp and to facilitate tying on to the next one from the back.
So far this approach is as efficient as sectional warping with my Warping Square on either of my Louet looms. The warp is rolling on smoothly and the tension is remaining consistent bout to bout and edge to edge. I think I will enlarge the support holes on the Delta to make it spin a little freer – maybe add a nylon sleeve. We will see.
On the next round of slats I will laser cut them but only cut the holes in the top layer. I will glue up the wood and then go to the drill press and, using the laser cut holes as a guide, I will drill through the entire thickness. This will cut down on the laser time, reduce the amount of char, ensure alignment between layers, and give me a little more control over the resulting hole size.
My plan is to tie on to my existing TC2 warp and continue to use auto tension and auto advance. TC2s are designed to have a cylindrical warp and with these slats, it isn’t. I haven’t had any trouble so far with less than perfect warp cross sections. Knock on laser-cut wood.
My current configuration is 45 ends per inch with 3 modules deep across the whole loom. Switching to spools and a spool rack would mean buying yarn in spools that fit my rack or winding spools. I have configured my Dreaming Robots cone winder for spools and have 3D printed spools to fit but I will save that for another day when I want to wind on more than 15+ yards.