Weaving loom - beginner project?

[Elena Demeris]

Hi, I've taken a basic woodworking course and now I'm looking for projects. My problem is after 27 years in the same house I have all the furniture I want. What I really want to make is a spinning wheel and weaving looms. I'm wondering if these projects are way over my head. Does anyone have any experience with this type of project? Any advice on where to start?
TIA

[Sam Yerardi]

Elena,

There are a lot of resources available to help you build spinning wheels, looms, etc. One source I humbly bow to are the books by Franklin Gottshall. I was lloking last night at one of his books and he has plans for both a loom and several different types of spinning wheels.

As far as the difficulty, go for it! Take you time, research a lot - even if it means stopping before you make that next cut to research is this the best way to do it? Early on I got discouraged because I failed to plan. Even when you have drawings, take your time and make sure you understand them. Sometimes you might discover that the plans are in error. It's all part of the fun. And it's how you learn. There are a lot of great guys on this site that can help you. JUMP IN!

If you want, I'll get the name/info about the book I mentioned.

[Sam Yerardi]

One more thing I forgot to mention - try to find actual looms, etc. and look at them first hand. They are like furniture - a lot are different and you can learn something from each one. It's funny you mentioned this as later towards the end of this year I have been thinking about doing a loom and planning on doing a spinning wheel. There are some other devices that I have drawings for that are in the same arena.

[Steven Wilson]

There are lots of decent woodworking projects associated with weaving. Making a spinning wheel would be a bit more advanced. Look for a book (out of print I believe) called "Loom Construction" by Hjert & Von Rosenstiel. In it are many good woodworking projects associated with weaving. Some of the ones I've built for my wife and daughter are; Inkle Loom (very easy to build), Inkle shuttle, tapestry comb, lease sticks, boat shuttle, and a warp board. I also built a tapestry loom for my daughter that looks a lot like an Ashford Tapestry Loom (Australian company). I didn't have plans for it, just downloaded their assembly manual and built something similar. Another usefull project is to refurbish a desktop loom. My wife picked up a four-harness, desktop loom that needed a couple of parts rebuilt (wood warped) and was missing lease sticks and such. That project was fairly easy woodworking (copy existing parts) and yielded a nice working loom.

[Elena Demeris]

Sam - I would like the book information. Thanks!

An inkle loom would be great! OK, now I'm excited about woodworking again.

[Sam Yerardi]

Elena,

I looked at the book last night. It is Making Furniture Masterpieces by Franklin Gottshall. You can find it on amazon or alibris for under $20. I'm not sure what the specific type is called but it is four pedal setup, looks like it is about 6-7' tall, and about 5' wide maybe? I didn't look at the dimensions. In the book I think there was a plan for a spinning flax wheel as well. The reason I don't remember is I have most of his books and a couple of them have similar covers but the projects are all different.

If you take Gottshall's approach, feel free to PM me antime or email me at yerardism@ports.usec.com to help with his drawings, etc. I'm pretty familiar with his style . I don't know if you've used drawings much. If not, I'll be glad to help.

[Elena Demeris]

Thanks, Sam! I'll keep my eye out for that book. In the meantime I found one of Franklin Gotshall's books on abebooks for a couple of bucks - couldn't resist - it's called Making Useful Things out of Wood. Do you have it? What are they projects?
I got Loom Construction by Hjert that was recommended as well.

One of the things that we didn't cover in the course I took was reading and following plans so I really appreciate your offer. I'm trying to psych myself up to get started - after all - I can make a dress - it's kind of the same thing - cut out the pieces and put them together - except fabric is alot more forgiving than wood - in sewing you will always see directions that refer to 'ease', meaning if it doesn't quite fit you can either stretch one of the pieces or gather it to make it fit - lol - that is so not happening with wood!

[keith ouellette]

Elena;
I don't know how good the class was that you took and I am a little slow so that helps shape my opinion but I have a hard enough time building square things. It wouldn't be a stretch to my mind to see you are already more skilled than I am but if it was me i would make a couple of less complicated things first. I've seen some spinning wheels and they look complicated to me but on the other hand you could learn a lot to.

[Sam Yerardi]

Elena,

That one and his books on carving are the last ones of Gottshall's on my list to get. I've got about 7 of his books and they are all great. I think the projects in the book you're getting will be much simpler to follow than the other books. If you feel overwhelmed by the drawings for the loom in the books you will look at, there is one important lesson to learn about woodworking. That is to be patient, and break things down into managible chucks (you eat an elephant one bite at a time). It can be easy to get frustrated and give up so you need some small successes along the way to push you along. Try a few small projects first to get a feel for your tools. When you're ready to start on the bigger things, look them over and try to learn what is it about this I don't know how to do (for example, dovetails)? Then find a small project that has dovetails and work on it until you feel comfortable to try something new. Getting a lot of different books with plans is a great way to start. You won't be a master immediately but really none of us are - we are learning something every day. New ways to do things, new joints, new finishes...

One thing about reading mechanical drawings such as woodworking drawings is that sometimes dimensions aren't explicitly shown - they have to be derived from the dimensions that ARE shown. It's not real difficult but at first glance you may think 'they forgot a dimension'. It may take a while but 99 times out of 100 it's there. Sometimes it isn't and then you might want to use a set of dividers or rule to measure and compare dimensions. That's part of the fun. It's an adventure jumping into a set of plans and tell yourself I'm going to learn something from this. Have fun and don't worry if you screw up. I have so many times this week that... well, you get the picture :)