Help.  I am the new owner of a beautiful old Murphy Loom.  The looms where I take classes have little wires that snap in and out of the ends of the bars that hold the heddles but my Murphy seems to have folded - very stiff - wire in place that does not move.  The heddles look great but the bars need to be cleaned up.  I cannot figure out how to get them off short of unscrewing the shaft (which I have no reason to do otherwise.  Help!

Comments

Sat, 06/15/2013 - 00:13

sandra.eberhar…

Since you have an unusual type of loom, pictures would be very helpful.

Sun, 06/16/2013 - 12:45

sequel (not verified)

Just shove the heddles all to one side, clean up the rust/gunk with steel wool, wax with paraffin, then slide the heddles back to the other side and repeat.

Thu, 07/04/2013 - 16:31

SunnyB

Well - that would have been the thing to do I guess... thank you.  I became rather curious this morning and just took off the bicycle chains and examined each harness.  The wires at the ends are tension wires which I simply backed out carefully.  I was able to pull all of my nice clean heddles off - gee - in retrospect it would have been a good idea to put them on pipe cleaners... but anyway, I'm planning to measure them and get colored texsolve heddles.  I know the "camps" are very divided about those but I have a vision issue and I believe that having each harness have its own color heddle will be very helpful to me.  Since I am a total beginner I will (and will have to) learn by my mistakes.  Well - I'm off to soak bike chains and steel wool heddle bars and poles.  Of course first I'm going to dust and clean those harness frames and give them a lovely coat of that wax feeder that everyone seems to love.  Thanks for trying to help me!

 

Thu, 07/04/2013 - 20:45

agneslionel

I, too, have a vision problem. I found it easier to paint my heddles. You can string them on wire, tape newspaper over the eyes and about two or three inches above and below the eyes, and then spray the rest with enamel model paint. It works great, takes very little time, dries fast, and does not wear off or chip the way nail polish does. And wire heddles are easier to see (at least for me) than texsolve. 

Thu, 07/04/2013 - 21:06

kerstinfroberg

While I (of course) respect the idea of "making it easy", I have to ask: if you mark your heddles (as opposed to your shafts, whether the shafts be frames or just a couple of bars/rods) - if you mark your heddles, how do you handle different "shaft needs" for different weave structures? A tied weave (for instance) need so many more heddles on certain shafts than does a (say) pointed threading - does that mean that you acquire so many "extra" "yellow" (or whatever) heddles just for those occasions? Or does it mean that, when you need so many more heddles on certain shafts, you decide than (say)  yellow-and-red = "yellow" while (say) green-and-blue = "green" for this particular threading?

Kersgin in Sweden, always changing heddles around

Sat, 07/06/2013 - 16:21

agneslionel

Yup, you're right. I get around this problem by having a stash of unmarked heddles that I intersperse with the colored ones when I need extra heddles on one or another shaft. I also color my shafts in color families, so (for example) shaft 4 is yellow and shaft 8 is orange, so they can be combined. It's fiddly but it works.

Agnes in Iowa, who has no depth perception at all

Wed, 07/17/2013 - 18:04

SunnyB

Dear Kersgin,

I am a brand new weaver.    I have never had to handle different weave structures.  So - I don't know how I will handle them.  Maybe like the lady that posted after your post.  All I know is that if I cannot warp the loom - I cannot weave the project.  With my vision - I have to do what I have to do.  I too have extra heddles - I'll just have to throw them in the mix when I need to.  But thank you for your question.  It pays to look ahead.

 

Wed, 07/17/2013 - 21:41

mrdubyah (not verified)

You might want to check frame weight before replacing all those heddles.  Remember that jack looms depend on the weight of the frames, including the wire heddles, to hold the frames in rest position and to return them when lifted.  Texsolv heddles may not be heavy enough to pull the frames down, meaning you'll only get a partial shed. 

Thu, 07/18/2013 - 13:37

sally orgren

If you end up not being able to replace your heddles with Texsolv, a trick I use is colored plastic paper "clips" from the office department at Walmart.

I use them to hold extra heddles off to the side when weaving, but in threading, the different colors can be used on each shaft to clearly tell you where you are when threading. As they easily clip on or off a heddle bar, you can move them along the shaft as you thread, on the top or bottom, which ever place will be most likely to catch your eye.

Another trick people use is to lift the shaft they are threading, to it stands apart from the rest (called "treadling the threading").

The fact you are considering these options from the get-go and willing to try a few things is a sign a great weaver-in-the-making! 

 

Fri, 07/19/2013 - 02:45

SunnyB

My loom is a counterbalance loom.  It will be fine.