Thomas Wilson
04-02-2019, 2:52 PM
I wanted to post this with the much longer post about my new shop, Cave of the Modern Neanderthal. But I had reached the limit for number of pictures.
The first project to come out of the CofMN is a Prayer Loom. This is for Children's Choir. My daughter volunteered me to make the thing. The Cave as I reported in the other thread is not ready for prime time but I did this project anyway.
The children's choir is divided into age groups for practice. The kids have play time and crafts while they wait their turn. The director of the non-choir activities, who is a saint on earth for sure, had the idea for the prayer loom which consists of a wooden frame on a stand with 1/4" hardware cloth (square welded metal mesh usually found on rabbit cages.) The idea is to weave patterns and messages with yarn in the mesh like cross-stitch and pray for Lent. I made the loom all with hand tools except for knocking off the corners of the feet. I was in a hurry to finish. I used the Dewalt miter saw. I did not have time to plane down the construction grade lumber to remove the grade stamps and clean up the surface. The end product is pretty rough but the joinery is good and it was good practice. The joinery is all cross-laps with glue and screws except for the stretcher in the stand which is a wedged mortise and tenon so it can be easily disassembled. The whole thing took forever. I was banging out the final mortises for the wedged tenons 3 hours before choir. It was not quiet, neighbor-friendly hand tool work in the Cave. Fortunately, I got no complaints but the next trip to Tennessee, I retrieved a rubber mallet from the storage unit where all my power tools are right now. The rubber mallet will still be a loud but duller sounding whack. For the cross laps, I sawed and chiseled the waste, finishing to exact depth with a router plane. Chiseling the waste from cross laps was not so loud because the wood was reduced to thin strips of cross grain that were easily knocked off.
407028
In actual usage, the kids are very creative. The idea is to keep adding to it until Lent is over. I don't know about praying but the kids certainly laughed and talked while weaving. I call it a success.
The first project to come out of the CofMN is a Prayer Loom. This is for Children's Choir. My daughter volunteered me to make the thing. The Cave as I reported in the other thread is not ready for prime time but I did this project anyway.
The children's choir is divided into age groups for practice. The kids have play time and crafts while they wait their turn. The director of the non-choir activities, who is a saint on earth for sure, had the idea for the prayer loom which consists of a wooden frame on a stand with 1/4" hardware cloth (square welded metal mesh usually found on rabbit cages.) The idea is to weave patterns and messages with yarn in the mesh like cross-stitch and pray for Lent. I made the loom all with hand tools except for knocking off the corners of the feet. I was in a hurry to finish. I used the Dewalt miter saw. I did not have time to plane down the construction grade lumber to remove the grade stamps and clean up the surface. The end product is pretty rough but the joinery is good and it was good practice. The joinery is all cross-laps with glue and screws except for the stretcher in the stand which is a wedged mortise and tenon so it can be easily disassembled. The whole thing took forever. I was banging out the final mortises for the wedged tenons 3 hours before choir. It was not quiet, neighbor-friendly hand tool work in the Cave. Fortunately, I got no complaints but the next trip to Tennessee, I retrieved a rubber mallet from the storage unit where all my power tools are right now. The rubber mallet will still be a loud but duller sounding whack. For the cross laps, I sawed and chiseled the waste, finishing to exact depth with a router plane. Chiseling the waste from cross laps was not so loud because the wood was reduced to thin strips of cross grain that were easily knocked off.
407028
In actual usage, the kids are very creative. The idea is to keep adding to it until Lent is over. I don't know about praying but the kids certainly laughed and talked while weaving. I call it a success.