I had something going on with my left heel last week- a combination of what felt like neuropathic sensations of electrical shocks emanating up my left leg from my heel, and just plain outright pain. Bad pain. Not kidney-stone bad, but enough to make me very grouchy for a couple of days. Ibuprofen helped, but it was still hard to walk, so I put up my feet for Friday and Saturday and about half of Sunday, using ice and moist heat in alternating intervals. It seems to have done the trick (add to that that I'm also avoiding the Bad Shoes with the Very Worn Soles).
I had this a number of years ago and it came from wearing shoes with no cushioning in the heel part of the soles. Once I got new shoes it went away gradually, but I also neglected to put my foot up and apply alternating ice and moist heat. This time, I followed that regimen exactly, and it's almost totally better! Walking with a fair amount of ease and balance today, with just a tiny kernel of intense pain.
Also on Saturday, the package from AVL with the replacement pulley for the shaft-lifting treadle arrived. It's so funny...it's solid while plastic, but exactly the same as the earlier wooden one. Interesting to see how small the cylindrical bore is. Yesterday afternoon, after my foot felt pretty good, I went back downstairs and put it back on the loom. I also added wire ties to the axle in order to keep the pulley from playing up and down the axle as it had been before.
It's working again. I used the previous dobby chain that was still mounted in the mechanical dobby; it worked very well. AND, without the odd play that the conical-ized bore had been causing with the old play is gone. I hadn't realized how much of a difference it would make; now it's very smooth!
I also started winding bouts of cotton for the next project, which is something I'm calling a 'dôtaku-bag'. More on that later!
Monday, January 25, 2016
Thursday, January 21, 2016
The Pulley Cometh
Yay! So AVL did have a replacement after all for the distressed wooden pulley on my 16-shaft AVL.
They make it from plastic now. Hopefull it'll be here soon! I'm going to keep the wooden one, in case I ever want to have another replacement turned out of wood.
I was looking at the diameter of the bore on the worn-out wooden one. It'll be interesting to see how large the bore is on the plastic one, as the original bore on the wooden one just really isn't visible anymore. The increasing cone-shape of the worn bore...when I look closely, I see that there is coning happening on the front side of the old wooden one, too, and they kind of meet in the middle; thus it's probably not really possible to know the exact original bore in relation to the size of the metal rod that functions as an axle.
Also: to cut down on the movement of the pulley along the axle, I'm going to constrain the pulley with twist-ties. I don't think all that play is necessary, and I don't think it'll be too rigid. I wonder if originally this loom had some sort of constraining rings on the axles.
The long life of the old wooden pulley, now to be retired, is a testament of the quality of the materials used to build these looms. I think that it's taken a very long time to develop the conical distortion of the original cylindrical bore, but once it started getting cone-shaped, it kind of accelerates the bore getting even more cone-shaped. I've noticed that there was a direct correlation of how much wood powder I was finding on the floor below the pulley and how much the cone-shape was increasing. As in: the more cone-shaped it gets, the more wood is removed via the ordinary motion of the shaft-lifting cable just doing its thing; the more wood is removed, the more cone-shaped it becomes, and the more cone-shaped it becomes, the more wood is removed. So there's sort of a scary geometric progression. Better minds than mine could explain it precisely, but let's just frame this by saying that it was really time to get the new pulley.
I checked the other wooden pulley (again, original to this loom), the pulley in relay to the treadle that advances the dobby, and it is *not* developing a cone-shape in its cylindrical bore. Pretty sure that it's because the amount of stress on that pulley is vastly less than the stress placed on the one that relays to the shaft lift.
They make it from plastic now. Hopefull it'll be here soon! I'm going to keep the wooden one, in case I ever want to have another replacement turned out of wood.
I was looking at the diameter of the bore on the worn-out wooden one. It'll be interesting to see how large the bore is on the plastic one, as the original bore on the wooden one just really isn't visible anymore. The increasing cone-shape of the worn bore...when I look closely, I see that there is coning happening on the front side of the old wooden one, too, and they kind of meet in the middle; thus it's probably not really possible to know the exact original bore in relation to the size of the metal rod that functions as an axle.
Also: to cut down on the movement of the pulley along the axle, I'm going to constrain the pulley with twist-ties. I don't think all that play is necessary, and I don't think it'll be too rigid. I wonder if originally this loom had some sort of constraining rings on the axles.
The long life of the old wooden pulley, now to be retired, is a testament of the quality of the materials used to build these looms. I think that it's taken a very long time to develop the conical distortion of the original cylindrical bore, but once it started getting cone-shaped, it kind of accelerates the bore getting even more cone-shaped. I've noticed that there was a direct correlation of how much wood powder I was finding on the floor below the pulley and how much the cone-shape was increasing. As in: the more cone-shaped it gets, the more wood is removed via the ordinary motion of the shaft-lifting cable just doing its thing; the more wood is removed, the more cone-shaped it becomes, and the more cone-shaped it becomes, the more wood is removed. So there's sort of a scary geometric progression. Better minds than mine could explain it precisely, but let's just frame this by saying that it was really time to get the new pulley.
I checked the other wooden pulley (again, original to this loom), the pulley in relay to the treadle that advances the dobby, and it is *not* developing a cone-shape in its cylindrical bore. Pretty sure that it's because the amount of stress on that pulley is vastly less than the stress placed on the one that relays to the shaft lift.
Monday, January 11, 2016
Horrors...powdered wood!
I wove off the last part of the interleaved twill sample yesterday. There was still about 6 inches of warp I *could* have crammed weft into, but at one point, while weaving at a good clip, I noticed a pile of tan powder that was quickly accumulating below the pulley associated with the right-hand treadle (the one that does the work to lift the shafts).
I'd known for a while that due to the age of my beloved AVL (circa 1979-80ish), that there would be wear and tear, and if it turns out to be something that AVL can't sell me a replacement part for, it will not be difficult to turn a new pulley on my lathe. Specifically, what is happening is that the cylindrical bore through the pulley has, over the years, become conical in diameter, mostly at the far end, which is the place on the pulley where most of the load of lifting the shafts falls, so it makes perfect sense that this is the kind of wear that would proceed. Not too bad for being about 36 years old! But I hadn't noticed the powder before...it seems to be breaking down quickly. So I'm going to ask Ryan Utnehmer if they have a replacement one. If not, or if its price is out of my reach, I'll have to turn a replacement on my lathe. At least it's not a difficult part to make well...phew.
Saturday was great fun. A friend and I had planned a Dyeing Day, but I had also wanted to try out her AVL loom, which is far newer than mine, and also with an additional 24 shafts. ;-) She kindly set me up to weave on it - it was fanTAStic - it'd be the perfect loom for me, with the e-lift, because if my knees get any worse it will become gradually more and more difficult to lift shafts under leg-power. I managed to move along at a really good clip - not as fast as my friend can (she's the fastest and most deft handweaver I've ever met - she could probably outpace a fly-shuttle). That was fun!!
Then we had lunch, at a very nice Thai place.
My friend also lent me a number of books that anyone contemplating learning advancing twills and network drafting should learn from. I spent about six hours yesterday, after weaving off the sample, studying the books. Splendid. I learned so much just by reading carefully and slowly. A lot of this will entail warping the AVL with a sample warp and going through the exercises one-by-one, but this will also need to wait until I'm using a Compu-Dobby...as my friend said "You should live so long, to peg such a long dobby chain!"
In the meantime, though, my friend also gave me a number of books of which she has duplicates - one of them is a collection of drafts from Complex Weavers members, and one of them is one I've been wanting to do but whose draft I was not able to find anywhere until now. I think that'll be my next project, and I'm going to start it out by weaving it in perle cotton first. More on that later!
I'd known for a while that due to the age of my beloved AVL (circa 1979-80ish), that there would be wear and tear, and if it turns out to be something that AVL can't sell me a replacement part for, it will not be difficult to turn a new pulley on my lathe. Specifically, what is happening is that the cylindrical bore through the pulley has, over the years, become conical in diameter, mostly at the far end, which is the place on the pulley where most of the load of lifting the shafts falls, so it makes perfect sense that this is the kind of wear that would proceed. Not too bad for being about 36 years old! But I hadn't noticed the powder before...it seems to be breaking down quickly. So I'm going to ask Ryan Utnehmer if they have a replacement one. If not, or if its price is out of my reach, I'll have to turn a replacement on my lathe. At least it's not a difficult part to make well...phew.
Saturday was great fun. A friend and I had planned a Dyeing Day, but I had also wanted to try out her AVL loom, which is far newer than mine, and also with an additional 24 shafts. ;-) She kindly set me up to weave on it - it was fanTAStic - it'd be the perfect loom for me, with the e-lift, because if my knees get any worse it will become gradually more and more difficult to lift shafts under leg-power. I managed to move along at a really good clip - not as fast as my friend can (she's the fastest and most deft handweaver I've ever met - she could probably outpace a fly-shuttle). That was fun!!
Then we had lunch, at a very nice Thai place.
My friend also lent me a number of books that anyone contemplating learning advancing twills and network drafting should learn from. I spent about six hours yesterday, after weaving off the sample, studying the books. Splendid. I learned so much just by reading carefully and slowly. A lot of this will entail warping the AVL with a sample warp and going through the exercises one-by-one, but this will also need to wait until I'm using a Compu-Dobby...as my friend said "You should live so long, to peg such a long dobby chain!"
In the meantime, though, my friend also gave me a number of books of which she has duplicates - one of them is a collection of drafts from Complex Weavers members, and one of them is one I've been wanting to do but whose draft I was not able to find anywhere until now. I think that'll be my next project, and I'm going to start it out by weaving it in perle cotton first. More on that later!
Thursday, January 7, 2016
Happy New Year
I was pretty sick over the new year, but feeling almost back to baseline. Don't know what it was - but then, I do work in a hospital. I did have a flu shot this year. It felt flu-ey, but not exactly, and there were no congestion problems - mostly gastric, but with high fever and aching joints that felt like they'd been smashed. Ugh. I managed to sleep through most of it...
...and then woke up and it was a different year!
It's a bit warmer out, and we've been getting a plenitude of much-needed and longed-for rain, and snow in the Sierra. Not out of the drought woods yet, but that's a start. Folsom Lake is said to have risen 28 feet in the past month!
Still have the small sample warp on the AVL. Think I'll weave on it tonight. I'd forgotten how long it takes to finish something that's 80 picks per inch!
I ordered some more 60/2 with Tien from the supplier in the UK. I like their quality of their silk much better than that of the silk yarns I'd purchased from That Other Place. Also, the price was right, even with ordering all the way from the UK.
Depending on the weather Saturday, Tien and I might do some dyeing in the yard down there - I'm looking forward to my first-ever painted warp!!
...and then woke up and it was a different year!
It's a bit warmer out, and we've been getting a plenitude of much-needed and longed-for rain, and snow in the Sierra. Not out of the drought woods yet, but that's a start. Folsom Lake is said to have risen 28 feet in the past month!
Still have the small sample warp on the AVL. Think I'll weave on it tonight. I'd forgotten how long it takes to finish something that's 80 picks per inch!
I ordered some more 60/2 with Tien from the supplier in the UK. I like their quality of their silk much better than that of the silk yarns I'd purchased from That Other Place. Also, the price was right, even with ordering all the way from the UK.
Depending on the weather Saturday, Tien and I might do some dyeing in the yard down there - I'm looking forward to my first-ever painted warp!!
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