I have looked at a lot of weaving looms and even purchased one from Mudhole. None seemed to fit my needs. So I began to consider what was it that these others didn't do for me. The first thing I came up with is they are all difficult to see the exact place to insert the individual threads. After thinking about it for a while, I hit upon using the same principal I use to make fly boxes. Instead of cutting the high density foam with a straight edge, I cut it with some pinking shears. That left me a jagged edge that made each thread easy to locate exactly. I just cut at each peak and at each valley, then simply number the cuts.

I had trouble finding 1/4 inch channel that did what I wanted, until I hit on using the same stuff they use to cover the edge of glass shower doors. It is a little too high, but a few minutes on a sanding wheel takes care of that problem, and you can buy it for about a $1 per foot. I also had trouble trying to find square plastic that was flexible enough to cut to the right shape. I also wanted to make the looms that had a 90 degree bend. I found two solutions. First was to bend some 1/8" plexi. Lots of Youtube videos on doing that. I tried a heat gun first, but that heated up too broad a section and the bend wasn't what I wanted. So I went to a pencil butane torch. It provided the heat I needed and kept the area narrow enough to take a nice bend. But the best solution I found was to buy plastic roof gutter. Its very cheap, comes in all colors and can be easily cut to size. This is what I ended up using. I used my cad program to print the numbers on some paper and just glued it to the gutter material, made the foam thread holders with pinking shears, and glass guard, glued everything together with E6000, and I now have weaving looms that are very easy to use and cheap. About 2$ per loom. I will be making a lot of these for the Disabled Vets I work with when we start our rod building class this summer.

The other loom I was interested in was the Renzetti Wonder Weaver. I have always felt there was a way to make one of these from PVC. I have seen several in the photo gallery, but wanted to use foam and my pinking shear edge. The problem is trying to find the right outer diameter so that when you start and end the cut the peaks and valleys line up. It turns out the distance from the peak to the valley is about .2 inches. So a little math and knowing how many threads it needs to hold and I was able to use my cad program to draw a template with the pinking outline on it. I print it out and then just glue it to the foam with contact cement. Then a simple matter of cutting the outer circle with pinking shears, and the inner circle with a very sharp xacto knife.

I found some threaded PVC connectors at Home Depot that were perfect for my needs. Then used my hole saws to cut some clear plastic circles. Sandwiched the foam between the plexi and I have the Wonder Weaver with modifications. To make the left hand side I needed two threaded fittings and a piece of PVC to glue between them. Make two more sandwiches of plexi and foam and there it is. Drill holes in each for the thumb screws to hold everything in place and your are done.

I have uploaded some photos to "Thread Art section" of the photo section. I probably should have uploaded to equipment, but didn't, sorry.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 05/31/2016 12:33PM by John Wright1945.

I like em, John! Finding the thread slots has always been an issue for me.

Jerry Poindexter Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I like em, John! Finding the thread slots has
> always been an issue for me.


Jerry,
So far they work great. Makes weaving much easier.

i HAVE BEEN WEAVING SINCE 1978AND HAVE TRIED SEVERAL COMMERCIAL WEAVING LOOMS, BUT THE PROBLEM ALWAYS SEEM TO RETURN BACK TO ORIENTING THE THREADS. aFTER TRYING DIFFERENT LOOMS i WENT BACK TO THE OLD TRIED AND TRUE WAY WITH DOUBLE SIDED TAPE AND MARKING {LEVING LONGER} EVERY 5TH THREAD, SEEMS TO WORK WELL THE MORE THAT i DO.EVERY ROD SEEMS TO GET INITIALS, SORT OF A TRADEMARK OF MINE.dOES ANYONE KNOW WHERE TO GET COMMERCIALLY MADE WEAVES AS i AM TIRED OF DRAWING WHAT i WANT ON GRAPH PAPER. i WOULD OF TAKEN UP ARTISTRY IF i ONLY KNEW.

try doc ski he sells all sorts of patterns and i think the alphabet

Why not download @#$%&. It is now free and will convert .bmp images to left lists and graphed images.