Yesterday I picked up a new (to me at least) countermarch loom. At the moment, it is fitted with 220mm (8 5/8") string heddles. I would like to replace these with texsolv. 

Looking at the texsolv website, the 220mm heddles are mostly used for table looms. I have all the bits for 8 shafts, but by the looks of it, the loom was built to accept 12. As I am replacing all heddles anyway, now is probably a good time to change the heddle size. 

The distance from the top of the breast beam to the horizontal holding the knee beam is 195mm (about 7.5"). I assume this means that half the outside height of a shaft plus a quarter of the distance between the shaft bars should be slightly less than 195mm for maximum shed. Is this correct? By my calculations 280mm heddles would need about 190mm.

The height of the back beam is adjustable, so if things end up a little bit too tight, I can always raise it to give some extra room I guess. When set in the middle of its range, the back beam is at the same height as the breast beam. I can imagine why one would put the back beam higher, but  in what situation would one want to put the back beam lower than the breast beam? 

 

Comments

Sara von Tresckow

The standard Texsolv heddle for your loom is the 280/12 size, a little longer than your string heddles, but they work very well.

Matthijs

That was what I expected. Thank you for the confirmation. 

 

Joanne Hall

The other consideration is the space you have for lamms to move.  If your breast beam is at least 34 inchess from the floor, you can use the 11 inch, 280/12 heddles.  And the back beam is often higher than the breast beam.  If you add a drawloom the back beam can be as much as 3 inches higher.

Joanne

Matthijs

The breast beam is at 36", so that should be fine. A drawloom is something I would like to try some day, when I have enough space to place one. Thank you for your input.