notes on the copper loom

[tashabear]

My design

Comments

[points]

With a good wire-brush cleaning and use of flux, the joints should only take a moment to do.

As for cutting the rod, if you have a dremmel, a cutting wheel will do nicely. A sawzall with a fine metal blade will do it even faster. :)

(You're welcome to stop by here sometime if you're in the area to use tools, too.)

[tashabear]

I have everything, including a reciprocating saw, but thank you!

At some point I do need to retrieve my sweatshirt, though. :-D

[pickleboot]

the soldering is simple, and since you are not doing plumbing work you don't have to worry about moisture. just buy the plumbers solder/flux, a torch, and you are golden. ask me if you have any questions. i have a bunch of pipe cutters that go up to one inch pipes, so it is possible to cut the thicker ones. you can use a sawsall with a special blade, but i also think a good jewelers saw with the right blade works wonders. i can go through and see what frames and blades i have if you'd like- i've got at least a half dozen saws. let me know, or i can order a good one for you and tell you how to make an easy jig. i did do pipe fitting for a bit and a ton of work in copper pipe when i was in art school.

[tashabear]

Yeah, the pipe cutter I got goes up to at least an inch. I'm not terribly worried about the soldering either; as you say, it's not carrying water so it doesn't have to be perfect, just tidy. It's the threaded rod I'm concerned about cutting, but it may never happen, either, unless I want something between 12" and 24".

Thanks for the offer, though! I really appreciate it, and I may take you up on it at some point.

[cvirtue]

I looked at the post you linked yesterday (the original inspiration, I think it was) and it mentioned some way to get a longer warp, but I didn't understand what it meant. Do you have plans for longer warping?

[tashabear]

There are several ways. Start with the nuts as far apart on the threaded rod as you can go, or make the side pieces longer, or combine those two, or get longer threaded rod.

The method I think you're referring to, "chaining the warp," means cutting the warp as long as desired, tying a knot in it as the near end and tying a string or tape around it, and then tying the other end of the tape around the other end of the warp at a place where you can create good tension on the warp, and then making a crochet chain out of the excess, to keep it out of the way. Does that make sense?

[cvirtue]

Oh! Yes, that makes perfect sense now. What with all that copper, and the vision of how to make a long warp on an inkle loom, I was envisioning something complex with actual chains... Thank you.

[tashabear]

Ha! :-)

Chaining the warp is how you manage a really long warp on a bigger loom, else it would become hopelessly tangled as you moved it about.

[chefmongoose]

That looks very sharply constructed. Good show!

[tashabear]

Thanks! I started putting a warp on it last night, and the tension does relieve wobble a bit, but not enough to suit me, so there will definitely be soldering in the future. Who know that a love of fiber arts would result in the purchase of a blowtorch?