Andrew reassembling one of the harnesses

    Andrew reassembling one of the harnesses

    I am so blessed to be married to this wonderful man.  He’s been happily working away on repairing my Union loom, even taking time away from the important task of getting ready to go fishing!

    In this picture, he’s reassembling one of the harnesses.  He had already repaired the many holes in the bottom caused by the eyehooks repeatedly breaking off.  He even got the old broken pieces out so they won’t be in the way when he puts the brackets on the bottom.

    He used dowel pieces to fill in the holes, glued them in, sawed them off, and then sanded it smooth.  I need to get a picture of the bottom of the harness.  He did a beautiful job.  I’m not a carpenter, so I’m just in awe of all this stuff.

    While he was working on the harnesses, he noticed how rusty the metal frames were.  They were bent out of shape, and the screws holding them in were rusty.  Plus they were loose, and weren’t holding the wood well anymore.  So he took the harnesses apart, and repaired and reinforced the wood.  Then he straightened, sanded, and repainted the metal frames.  Finally he put it together again, with new screws.  This loom will be better than new when he gets done.

    I ordered a new reed, and it came last week.  We’re getting closer to putting my baby together now.  Andrew still wants to repair the warp beam.  Where the crank handle goes in, the wood is breaking apart.  He wants to fix that too, as he says it will only get worse if he doesn’t.  Plus a few of the dowels on the sectional beam have broken off over the years, and he wants to replace them.  He’s genuinely enjoying this project, and is looking forward to seeing me weaving on the old Union.  I suspect he’ll probably try his hand at it, too.

    Andrew was a structural aircraft mechanic in the Marine Corps, so he’s very good at this kind of thing.  He used to take jet aircraft apart, repair them, and put them back together, so this is a piece of cake for him.  He thinks he may have found his calling as a loom fixer-upper!  Seriously, he said he’d like to try building a loom next winter.  Hee, hee, I think I can find some plans for him!

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      Filed under: Weaving

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