Challenges

Last night Carlos helped me mount six more harnesses onto Millicent.  As each harness is suspended from its cables, the lower sprung lamms are also chained to the underside of each harness.  We had just mounted the third (third from the back; harness #14) harness when I noticed that the lower harness bar was tilted quite severely. 

It continues that way for now.  We got more harnesses on and they settled into their spots just fine, but harness 14's lower wooden bar kept tilting up on the left and down on the right.

I am not sure what is causing this, but I have a couple of ideas about possible sources:
1) Something to do with the spring. 
         The older springs that were included with the loom are - well, old.  They have a soft jiggliness that seems to be about the correct softness for the spring to perfectly balance the harness.  I noticed that someone had purchased a whole new set of springs for the lower sprung lamms, but those springs are much too rigid and tense to use - I put one on a lower lamm and the whole thing collapsed -  it was literally so strong that it pulled the harness right down.  There are sixteen of the new springs, so I'm thinking that someone in the past had tried to replace the older springs with these.  Not sure if they're from AVL, but if they are, they are the wrong hardness for this particular loom.  Might have to call AVL to explore options, or to try to search for springs that have a similar soft springiness.

2) Something to do with the capped piano wires that ride on either side of each harness.  I bent two of the wires, so that might be the cause somehow.

3) Not enough heddles all the way to the sides of each harness.  Might be bunched up too close in the middle.  Haven't really examined harness 14 for this - I read about it on the AVL troubleshooting page. 

4) Something about the wooden blocks that carry the springs underneath each harness.  Friction, perhaps.  Or the lack of it...

I also read on that same page how to 'choke up' on the springs a little bit in order to increase the strength of the chain.  I can't visualize how this will help if the harness is tilting rather than riding low or high, but it's a consideration. 

Overall though I was pleased to see all the rest of the harnesses neatly hanging in a slanted row - they are slanted slightly in order to produce a more even shed with the jack action. 

What else is left to do:

               a.  Finish hanging the harnesses on their cables and spacing out the heddles.

               b.  Seat all the cables in their respective slots underneath the dobby fingers.

               c.  Re-seat the two pull cables on the harness bar, which ride over a pulley inside the back   
                    of the dobby box.   Might be a little tricky.

               d.  Figure out (with Tien's help tomorrow) how to properly mount the weights and cords for
                   tensioning the two warp beams and the cloth storage beam.

               e.  Attach the treadle cables from the dobby box to the two treadles, and adjust.

Then, to try everything out.  I will probably put a short 8-bar chain on the dobby, just in tabby or a simple twill, to test-run.  I'm so excited!