Long Warp Trapeze

I did this video a few months ago, and just didn't upload it til now. Anyway, here is an experiment to keep tension on a longer and wider warp (about 8 yards long by 40 inches wide). It worked, although not quite as well as I hope, but still better than not having tension on the warp as I wound it on.

[@marianeill7141]

How marvelous to see another weaving post from you! Many of us draw inspiration from your posts! Happy New Year!

[@curmudgeon66]

Thanks !

[@micheleschurr733]

I wanted to thank you for posting your videos. I am a new weaver and have found them tremendously helpful. I love seeing what you are doing. I am happy I have my husband as a helper with tension. But heaven knows at some point, he may get tired of it! *laugh* So this is interesting. Please keep adding new videos whenever you have time.

[@curmudgeon66]

My wife got tired of helping with the tensioning of the warp about 10 or 15 years ago, that's why I keep experimenting with ways to do it on my own. ;) Thanks for your kind comments on my videos.

[@sonjanordahl3158]

I think your trapeze looks way more professional than mine. I have a couple of fastening points in my celling that I run cord threw. One end of each cord goes around the end of a 1" x 4' dowel, the other ends go through the eye bolt and are secured to an anchor point. When not in use house plants can be hunge there.

[@barbararickman8543]

I had a 9-foot warp for my rigid heddle. I actually used barbell weights to hold the loom in place and my 1-inch floor loom raddle to keep the warp even all the way across. I worked so well that I told other RH loom folks about it so that they can do the same thing with a very long warp.

[@CarinandReesesAdventures]

Looks like it works great!!

[@terrysharing]

Andy! This is the type of thinking I really love! Figuring out how to make something work. Even if you have to try again. I'm curious to know why it didn't work as well as you hoped. In my uneducated mind I'd think that a more even weight distribution of the warp might be better. Perhaps the warp anchored to another dowel that was weighted instead of individual sections of warp weighted differently. Ha! That's the old "manager" in me trying to make sure everything is running efficiently! I slip back in time when it comes to creating a sloution to a challenge. Even when I don't know what I'm talking about! I hope we'll see the end result of your "longer weighted wider warp"!

[@curmudgeon66]

Hi Terry, it worked pretty good. I think I will play with it and "tweek" it a bit, but the basic concept seems to have helped.

[@Amarysso]

Your setup looks good. I'm a bit worried about uneven tension though since you weigh them down only part of the time. The way I learned you weight them down the whole time and the same weight on each warp chain (and the chains are all the same width). Good luck and happy weaving!

[@barbararickman8543]

As a suggestion Andy. Replace that wooden dowl with an aluminum dowl. I did that on my rigid heddle and, BINGO! No more slack at the center of my warps on the RH.

[@curmudgeon66]

Thanks for the suggestions Barbara.

[@maryannerick7617]

You take the warp up and over a high dowel. Seems a good idea until the warp gets shorter. Would it work to have lower dowels - sorta like a ladder built into the trapeze - that would still keep the warp extended. Or the new lower dowel could slip into holes on either side of the trapeze or rest on brackets. The top dowel keeps the whole mechanism together so it stays in place. You would be moving the added dowel down as more and more of the warp is wound onto the beam. I warp alone and fully understand the situation! :) Never thought of putting the raddle on top of the castle! and the use of cotter pins is ingenious.

[@curmudgeon66]

I didn't show all of the winding on in the video, I did use a lower section of the trapeze when the warp got shorter. The Louet has a built in raddle on top of the loom, but I dont like it because the openings between the "teeth" of the raddle are too close together, so I made my own raddle to lay on top of the one that is part of the loom itself. I had thought of using nails, but I wanted something removable for the "teeth" of the raddle. Thanks for your thoughts on this and for watching my video.

[@maryannerick7617]

The manufacturers of our looms are in the business of building looms. They seem to have gotten dragged into the accessories market! I've found a handiness for building things the way I want and use them to be a great talent to have. When it came time to acquire a warping board and raddle, I used scrap lumber and put my money into a gadget that turns my drill into a drill press. From between $200 and $300 down to $20 ain't bad! They work just fine. I enjoy your videos!

[@candiedginger8729]

Your trapeze set up looks great. To keep the dowels from bending you could add verical support pieces using 1x2 or 1x3, drill holes just big enough for the dowel to pass through, have one support about every 2ft or less. These pieces need not be attached to anything, just having both dowels pass through each should be enough to maintain stability and then you would have the convience of being able to slide them.

[@curmudgeon66]

Thanks for your comments, I think what I am gonna do is to replace the dowels with a couple of 1 x 2 or 1 x 3 boards, and just use the router to round off one side of them and give them a really good sanding with a very fine grit paper.

[@Ritercrazy]

You are soooooo smart!

[@sarahwalker4434]

It was good to see you again. The theroy is good and I have seen other people use that type of trapeze. Let us know your thoughts when your are done.

[@curmudgeon66]

I think it basically worked as I hoped. I can probably tweek it a bit to make minor improvements, but in general I am happy with the results.

[@AREA-sj4ec]

looks great

[@curmudgeon66]

Thanks

[@DonnaScarpa]

Hi Andy! How long is your warp in this project? Is there a maximum warp limit other than the obvious (the length of thread or yarn on the spool) How much warp can your loom hold? What defines the limits? I only have experience with rigid heddle looms and I am getting a floor loom (used) next weekend. So exciting, so much to learn, You have been great inspiration and offer real hands on knowledge and experience. I enjoy your videos and watch them repeatedly and seem to learn something I missed.

[@brigittekrethe-krug4234]

tolle Videos,guck ich gern

[@mydogky]

Wish I had heard of one of these before I ended up buying a sectional warp set up which although very good, price wise not so good

[@curmudgeon66]

I thought of buying a sectional back beam, but after considering the cost (a bit over $400), and not being sure it would do what I wanted, I figured that spending less than $20 at the local home improvement store was a better deal. If it worked it was cheap, if it didn't work it was not a lot of $$ wasted. Thanks for watching and commenting.

[@lindamorehouse9104]

You just recently published this, though you did it a while back. Have you woven any of that warp? Any pix?