Sunday, July 02, 2023

A Few Small Repairs on the New Kessenich 8-Shaft Loom



 

Here she is -- Mary Meigs all waxed, oiled, polished,  and ready to weave! 

This post is about what I did to get her back in shape again.

 

Although most things on the new loom are in amazingly good shape, considering it was made in the 1950s (or so), there are a few things that needed some work ...

I think this decal helps to age the loom to before 1962, since that's when we started using zip codes in the US.  This loom predates zip codes. Which makes it more than 70 years old.

 

The fishing swivels that attach the treadles to the shafts.  Although these are in ok shape (not rusty or corroded), they are tricky to open when you want to change the tie-ups--hard on fingers / hands.  Having the right tool helps (a pair of jewelery pliers), but it would be even better to NOT need a tool at all.  

So we got these little 8-biners that work really well.  Same as on my other 4-shaft Kessenich loom. 


 No special tool needed to switch the tie ups.  These are much easier to manage.

The main thing that needed work is the bumpers under the shafts.  The rubber gasket material (or whatever that was) melted and is sticking to some of the other wooden parts, preventing them from moving freely.  Some of the shafts stick because of it.  Bruce Niemi, who now owns Kessenich Looms advised me to scrape all that old orange stuff off (a putty knife worked well), and replace it with some "closed cell rubber foam used for weatherizing windows.  1 inch wide x 1/2 inch thick.  I ordered this from Amazon, and cut it down to size.

 

This gasket bumper material should NOT be stuck to the wood like this. 

 This is a shot of the lams from underneath.  It was stuck to that surface as well.   Ew!

The old substance is strange -- It's the rusty orange color of plumber's gasket, but dry and brittle, and a little sticky sometimes, too.  Like it melted at some time, and oozed onto other parts.  How in the world did that happen?

 

Here's one of the bars -- there are 4 of them encircling the metal rollers that translate messages from the treadles to making the shafts move up and down.  This is as clean as I could make it.  It's ready for the NEW bumpers.

 

With this photo, I tried to show more of the context for where these bumpers are on the loom.  The lams are currently raised up so I can get in there to work on it.  The frames of the shafts have been removed, again so I can get in there to work on it.  There's another bar underneath those rolling pipes that also needed to be cleaned and scraped. 

 

This is as clean as I could get the lamms. [See photo higher up for the before shot.]

You can see some of the debris I scraped out on the paper underneath the loom that I was using as a drop cloth.

It didn't really take as long as I thought it would.  After I had most of the gunk out, I went over the wood with a little sandpaper to get out the last little bits that were still stuck to the wood. 

Here's a shot of the NEW bumpers, made from Black Adhesive Foam Padding, Closed Cell Foam Sheet 1/2" Thick 6 Inch X 6 Inch Neoprene Rubber Pad Self Stick Anti-Slip Adhesive Anti Vibration Foam Pad (6inX 6inX 1/2in, 8) and cut down to size 6-1/4 inch x 1/2 in thick x 1 inch wide.

The shafts are heavy enough to have made an impression / indentation on the new foam already.   We'll see how it holds up under stress /usage.  I have 8 sheets of it in stock!

Once I got the bumpers cleaned up, the next thing I did was to go over it with Murphy's Oil Soap and a sponge to clean her up.  She wasn't too dirty, but there were some spots that were dusty and linty.  Again -- not bad.  The previous owners took care of her well.

The next step is dust her and polish her up with some Howard's Feed n Wax.  It has a nice orange oil smell to it.  Bruce at Kessenich says to wax all the wooden parts that have the potential to rub together--that includes the frames of the shafts, and the lams (stick tray thingies underneath the shafts) that attach to the treadles.  And the ends of those lams where they nestle into the castle. 


A little oil in the "zerk" holes to lubricate the moving metal parts.  

I also oiled it from inside the castle [Look to the RIGHT side of this photo ...], as I wasn't sure I was pushing the oil nozzle far enough into the hole from the other side.  I may have been just oiling the wood at first.  Either way, I think this oils the ends of the metal pipes that the ropes twist around to raise and lower the shafts.  All the while being careful NOT to get oil on the ropes.

 

It's also important to periodically oil the roller bar (NOT the ropes) at the top of the castle on either end of the shafts.  There's a wooden topper there held by 2 screws, so it's easy to get in there for regular maintenance--which amounts to keeping it well oiled so you don't need additional maintenance.  

On the right side, you can see the tip of the sewing machine oil nozzle I used to apply the oil -- and the spaces the oil should go.


2 of the shafts are a little warped (although you can't really tell in this photo). I thought I would have to lay them out flat with some weights, so that they'll spring back into place.   But after waxing all the wooden parts and oiling the metal moving parts, things were moving much better.  I also tried moving the frames of the shafts around so that they all had a little more room to breath.  That helped, too.  

Also if I move the treadles of the sticking #4 shaft just so, it tends to go back down--if I make the right accommodation.  

It might be the lam that's a little warped, too?  Since all the other shafts I put in that #4 spot also stuck a little, it may not be the shaft after all.  That gasket melty-sticking gasket was holding it in an unnatural position for however long it was misbehaving.

I fixed 1 of the other warped and sticking shafts by changing the tie up.  Turns out the tie-up was chained to a treadle that was just a little too far away.  By changing the tie-up to a hook closer to that lam / shaft, it no longer pulled it towards the one next to it, and they both moved easier after that.  

Hurray for problem-solving!  That's what I love about weaving -- None of this is rocket science.  If you think about it for a little while, there is usually a way to solve whatever might be going on with the loom or the weaving.

Finally, I oiled the spring clips that hold the heddle bars in place, too, since they seemed a little stiff. 

I also rubbed some furniture paste wax on the metal bars that the heddles slide on.  They had just a little rust on them, and the paste wax will make them slide more smoothly.

I found a few blog posts that were helpful in telling me what I needed to do to get her back up and running again.

* KB Knits & Crafts did a whole series on updating Kessenich Floor Loom.  Although I didn't have to do everything she did, it was very helpful.



Here she is in resting mode.  You'd think there was a grand piano under that drape!  

Remember that vintage wedding ring quilt I bought on eBay?  I was young and naive and believed the seller when they said it was from the 1930s.  It was more like the 1990s -- and with rips and tears everywhere you looked.  I finally gave up trying to repair it.  It should have been listed as a "cutter quilt."  Oh well -- live and learn.  It's good enough (and BIG enough!) to keep the dust and sun off the loom and whatever projects during my work week -- Oh I am looking forward to retirement, but it will be a while yet!

Now we wait -- I ordered a couple of kits to get started.

Kits are usually good ways to get started with a new machine and new fibers.  Someone has picked a pattern, colors and the appropriate materials, so you can concentrate on getting to know the new loom.  ;-)

 Mary Meigs Atwater   [Photo from here.]

And finally -- Homage to The Dean of American Handweaving for whom this loom is named.

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