I Love My DIY Vertical Warping Mill!

My beautiful new cherry vertical warping mill, made by my husband.

Ok, I'll say it : I'm absolutely appalled at how much they are charging for ready-made warping mills / reels/ wheels or even here.  It's just a couple of sticks, a base with a spinny thing, and some screws.  You could probably make one out of a drying rack, for Pete's sake!   The total cost of supplies is probably less than $25.  It's not rocket science!  Why are they charging do much? It's highway robbery!

That that was my latest challenge to DH, knowing he would accept the challenge to make a warping mill, and therefore keep me weaving, and off the streets, and otherwise out of trouble.  Total cost of supplies was less than $20 for the metal pipe, 1 wooden dowel for the pegs, and other assorted hardware.   The base is part of an unused shelf from our kitchen cabinets, although I saw a heavy / solid cutting board a the local thrift store that would have worked just as well!

The rest of the wood came off of my husband's stash--the wood pile in the basement.  Most of the wood (minus the base and pegs) is black cherry from my dad's woods.  He and my Unca Ray got a wood mill a few years ago, and started the "Thick 'n Thin Lumber Mill."  As you can guess by the name, the planks were not perfect, but they work up beautifully for projects like this, and make me proud to say it's wood from my dad's land!  Unfinished as of yet, but sanded where it needs to be smooth. 

Here it is with a warp wound onto it.   The cross is at the top in this set up, though you could have a double cross and also include one at the bottom, too.    It's about 2 yards around the frame, and if you do the math, this is a 10 yard warp made from cotton carpet warp.  There will also be a purple section, too.    All for making rugs this summer.

After 1 week of planning and studying designs like this one, my husband worked it up, got the necessaries, put it all together, and finally presented me with the finished piece at about 8 pm Sunday night.  Too late to really try it out, so I thought about it all day at work today, excited to try it out tonight when I got home.

The verdict : It works beautifully!  No friction, no sound, other than the spools unwinding.  It makes winding a warp actually pleasant.  I never thought I'd see the day I'd say that!  Proof that the right equipment makes all the difference in the world -- from ice skates to sewing machines to spinning wheels.  If you've got crappy equipment, you'll be frustrated, and hate the task.  Then again -- necessity is the mother of invention!

You can't tell from the pictures, but he made it so that the box- type frame can fold down flat -- kind of like 2 picture frames nesting inside each other-- for storage.  The pegs can be removed easily, too.

I have a huge (way too wide) warping board that came with my floor loom.  I've struggled with it ever since I started warping with it.  It's too big, not stable, too much back and forth.  In short, I wind up so frustrated and tearing my hair out trying to use it.  I should just have my husband cut it down to a more manageable size, or trade it in for one I can use ...  But now -- I have a warping mill-- and it makes warping easy!  Almost even pleasant -- more of a simple meditation down and around and back up and around.  You get into a nice rhythm with it.  And everything comes out orderly and nice.  It works like a dream!  I'm so pleased with this new warping mill!   And it makes me feel loved when my husband makes stuff like this for me.   And he feels good about being able to make these things, too.    ;-)

 Here's a shot of the simple brake system I devised, which cam in very handy when I was un-winding the warp.  It's a simple shoe string with a piece of faux leather that adds a bit of friction so the unwinding doesn't get out-of-control.  You can tie it tighter, or go around again with the shoe string and leather to increase the friction, as needed.  And put it away when you are winding warp on.   Works great!

What started all this was that I was watching a Tom Knesley weaving video, where he was using a warping mill running all the colors together in a color block set, not putting them in order for the warp. Then he showed a much simpler way to warp front to back where you start with the reed (I think we've been starting with the heddles front to back), and pull the colors from your warp color bundles, not worrying about the cross so much because the reed will straighten everything out.  I'm interested to see that work too.

Later edit: We wrote a follow-up post in February 2020 explaining a few more of the specifics regarding plans consulted and how to get the silent turning.

For a demonstration of how to use a warping reel, see this video :