J-MADE DIGEST #13

 
Subject: J-List # 13

Date: Sat, 15 Jul 2000 10:13:45 -0700
From: "Sally Breckenridge" <sallyb@weaveit.com>
 

Thought I would make a brief announcement to the list that a new version of WeaveIt is shipping.  You can learn about the new changes in WeaveIt Pro 4.0 on the Web site  at www.weaveit.com

 This version is a true Windows 95/98/NT version and as such works a lot better for printing and has better performance.  It will not work for Windows 3.1 If you are using Windows 3.1 to run your loom, you can still upgrade and use the new version for design on another computer.  The pattern files are interchangeable.

The new version can also read the Macintosh formatted WIF files so now you should easily be able to read the WIF files on Eleanor Best's CD.

My JMade is now packed in boxes ready to move to Colorado.  We will move out of our home in two weeks into  temporary living until about October.  When I have a permanent address and phone I will be sending out a mailer to announce both that and the new version of WeaveIt.  In the meantime, I am hoping to keep my same phone number at my temporary apartment and the address will be forwarded.

Sally

Sally Breckenridge
sallyb@weaveit.com
www.weaveit.com

================================================================
From: Tom Vogl
Subject: External board for J-comp - An update

As some of you know, Dale has for some time been trying to get and test an external board for the J-comp, so that the loom can be driven from a laptop and maybe even a handheld. 

I had been asked to test the external board several months ago, and was about to do so, when the hard drive on our laptop gave up the ghost.  Dell has now sent us a (free) replacement and we have now devoted enough time to it to get most of the critical software installed. 

So, as soon as I finish the second (of three) lap blankets currently on the loom (18" to go) I will, before seriously starting on blanket no. 3, give the external board a whirl and let you all know.  I hope to do all this before the end of the summer.  Better late than never.

Cheers,

Tom.

=============================================================

From: Tom Vogl
Subject: Shaft hanger problem

I am having a (to me) novel problem with the loom and I am hoping that some of you might have had the same experience and found a solution.

We have never had a serious problem with shafts coming off their hangers in the past.  What is different about the current project is that I am (double) weaving the full 48" windth with a somewhat sticky (particularly in the summer humidity) silk-camel blend warp at 48 epi
(total) at high tension.  The pattern has a treadle repeat of over 800 picks, so one can consider the raising pattern almost random, and thus there is a great deal of difference in stickness between the nth and the n+1st pick.  The problem arises mainly on higher stickiness treadlings. 

For a while, I was using rubber bands to hold the hangers on the hooks, and that worked reasonable well, but the rbber bands don't last that long and when they fall they tangle in the warp.

A while back, Dale thought that the hooks on top of the shafts may have been cut too loosely and sent a new batch of hooks, which I put on the loom. It did not help. So I readjusted the entire set of 16 shaft hangers (by screwing them up or down as required) so that the warp lies
flat both when all the treadles are down and all the treadles are up and the tops of the shafts sloped relatively uniformly. 

That helped considerably, except for shafts 7 and 14. I noticed that these shafts tend to come off the hangers (of either side or both) as the shafts come down from being in the up position.  They don't come down quite far enough (I presume because of the force of the warp holding them up a little) and then the hanger swings free of the hook.

So I started screwing the hangers on these two shafts up further, and while that helped somewhat, it did not solve the problem.

Any experience, ideas, or suggestions - on-line or off?

Thanks,

Tom
tpv@world.std.com

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