Why on Friday?

Does it happen to you? The last few times I have had an “issue” with one of my looms, it happens on Friday. I will be weaving away, trying to meet one deadline or another, and something goes wrong.

Last time a cable broke on my Folding Dobby AVL loom. A broken cable is not the end of the world. But why does it have to happen Friday afternoon? If I don’t get my order for a new one in that day, I have to wait till Monday. It sets the final repair back farther. Did I say “final” repair. Yes, I did. I can never wait for the cable to come before I start weaving again, so I end up jerry-rigging a cord to get the loom back in production. Not pretty, but is works.

This time my AVL Production Dobby loom went on the fritz. I noticed an error and was un-weaving, not my favorite thing to do. As I worked my way back to the place I wanted to fix, many of the sheds would not open cleanly. That is when I discovered that shaft one had not been lifting as it should.

This is the first time I have had any problem with this loom. It has been a dream to weave on from the day I got it put together in my studio. I tracked down my manual, thankfully it was on the shelf where it belongs, and did some research on-line. From that I decided to see if I could do anything myself to fix it. I was hoping it was just a bit of lint causing the problem.

I took the dobby off the loom and everything seemed to work properly when I plugged it back in. So then I put the dobby back on the loom and adjusted it. As I started weaving again, I found shaft one only would raise part of the time. Once again, it’s Friday and I need to get some advice before the weekend begins.

It only took a couple of tries to get a person on the phone from AVL. I explained my problem and was given a few things to try. After frantically jotting down what I needed to know, I headed to the store. At 5:00 p.m. I headed back home with only half of what I went looking for. Canned air to blow foreign materials out of dobby is easy to find, but the lubricant for electrical parts was not.

When I got back home I tried the canned air, hoping it would be enough. After I did that I put the dobby back on the loom and adjusted it again. Lordy, it would be nice to be able to reach some parts of the loom without taking it apart! A bit more weaving and shaft one is still not behaving as it should.

My husband came home while I was weaving and adjusting and weaving and adjusting. I told him what I was doing and he started explaining to me all about solenoids. Men, they have all the answers. I am so thankful mine is mechanical! At the moment we are not sure if the solenoid is just sticking, getting ready to go out completely, or if the dobby is not adjusted just right.

In the morning I am going to try the loom again. I have 10 to 15 yards of warp on the loom that I really need to get woven off by the end of the month. If it is not working right, I have a couple of options. I can re-thread all of the threads from shaft one onto shaft 17. Not too bad of an idea, except I would have to tied on 57 heddles on shaft 17 since there are not any in the places I need them. I would also have to change all my drafts to switch the threads from shaft one to shaft 17, not a fun chore.

Option two, I can take the current shaft 17 off and physically move all the harness back one place. This way I would once again be using shafts 2 through 17, but would not have to tie those 57 heddles. This is a much better idea, but I would still have to redo all the drafts. Definitely a workable solution.

Then there is option three. Once again you have to love men that have answers! I have a 24 shaft loom and am only using 16 shafts for this project. My husband can take a solenoid from the back harness and replace the one that is on the fritz. This gets my loom back in operation without having to redo drafts and buys plenty of time for a replacement part to be sent.

So once again, I am jerry-rigging my loom to get in back in production for the weekend. What are you up to today?