Louet Spring Loom Tie-Up (Countermarch)
The Louet Spring is a parallel countermarch loom. This shed is opened by moving both the upper and lower threads. This provides more even tension on the warp ends, improving the tension and ease of weaving, especially for non-elastic yarns like linen.
The Spring, as with other countermarch looms, has upper and lower lamms. The upper lamms require longer tie-up cords to reach the treadle; likewise the lower lamms have the shorter tie-up cords.
Each treadle has a tie-up hooked to a screw that corresponds to the shaft. Shown in the above video is an 8-shaft Spring. For each treadle used, all 8 screws will have a tie attached. If the longer cord is attached (upper lamm), then the corresponding shaft will rise when the treadle is pressed. If the shorter cord is attached, the shaft will lower when the treadle is pressed.
If an error is made when tying a treadle such that a single shaft is connected to the treadle with both it's upper and lower tie-up cord, then the treadle will be locked and is not able to be pressed.
Either write-out, or produce a printout from TempoWeave of the tie-up for each treadle to take to the back of the loom. It helps to lthe upper ties and lower ties for each treadle.
It generally is faster to unhook all ties from the previous tie-up, push all the ties to the right for the treadles right of center, and left for the treadles left of center.
As shown in the video, start tieing up one of the center treadles. Notice that the screws reverse direction on the two center treadles. Working your way out from the center allows easy management of the tie-up cords by sliding what is needed in place.
Summary of our recommendations for the Spring Tie-up:
We don’t recommend fully loading all the lamm cords as they tend to be hard to push to the sides with so many on the loom. Consider keeping the extra short and long lamm cords with the assembly instructions for your loom.
When changing a tie-up, unhook the ties from all the screws and push them to the right or left, depending on which side they are from the center of the treadles.
The Spring comes with 14 indentations on the lamms. With the 10-treadle, 8-shaft spring, the treadles and corresponding indentations will be centered. This means that the first and last two indentations will not be used.
Start tying up one of the centermost treadles, pulling either a upper or lower cord for each shaft as required. Working from the center out keeps this activity organized and neat.
Normally the lower lamms are tied to according to the checked boxes in a rising shed tie-up. The upper lamms to the boxes not checked. Of course with many tie-ups, it really doesn’t matter, but if weaving something like overshot or summer and winter, you will want to see it face up, so it's good to be aware if the tie-up you are working from is for a rising or sinking shed.
We recommend sitting at the back of the loom when doing the tieup. It can be a little confusing at first, but it’s easier to see the and reach the cords and screws than working from the front. When sitting at the back of the loom, you will normally tie up one of the center treadles first. If you have a 10-treadle Spring, this would be the 5th treadle from your right, or when working with a 14-treadle spring, the 7th treadle from the right. Remember, as you are sitting at the back of the loom, the right most treadle would be the 1st treadle (leftmost) if sitting at the front of the loom in weaving position.
Weavers normally center their treadles. Suppose you have a 10-treadle Spring and have a tie-up with 8 treadles. You would leave the outermost treadles untied, and the center treadle that you start tying will be called treadle 4 as on your draft.
To avoid confusion and possible mistakes, printout or write the tie-up plan. Something like this, for each treadle. Notice I call the position the physical position of the treadle, and the treadle number corresponds to the tie-up in the draft. The lower as mentioned earlier are normally the ones that are marked for a rising shed tie-up, and the upper ties are not filled in.
Position 5, Treadle 4
Upper Ties: 1,3,5,7
Lower Ties: 2,4,6,8
Postion 4, Treadle 3
Upper Ties: 1,2,5,6
Lower Ties: 3,4,7,8
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