"Oxaback Lilla and Temple"

In some correspondence with another weaver, Matt, the other day, he'd mentioned that the Oxaback Floor Loom couldn't use one of the homemade temples because the frame on the loom does not have a horizontal support for the temple's cord to hang over. I should say it doesn't have one at the height "needed", as there is one lower. If a homemade temple was to be attached to a piece of weaving, the support has to be very close to the same level as the weaving, otherwise, the woven fabric is pulled in a downward angle....not a good thing.

So I got to thinking about how I could rig something up to accommodate a temple. I had a couple of lengths of steel rod left from when I had Home Depot cut some longer ones down to a custom length to replace the flat wooden warp and cloth rods on my Ashford Table Loom. They were the correct length, why not use them? So I went to the hardware store and bought 4 screw eyes. I wanted something thinner with a long shank, but those weren't available, but found some that would work fine.

The Oxaback's "beater" sticks out a tiny bit from the loom's frame so I was not able to have anything that laid flush against the frame, so only screwed the eyes in far enough to catch firmly.

Here is how it looks when finished. It is easily detachable and does not threaten the integrity of the loom's frame. I could have used "L" screws, but felt a rounded piece of hardware would be better.

The steel rods (wooden dowels could be used, too) are held in place with a rubber band.

The other side of the loom has the knob which controls the folding section of the loom. It is used when one would bring the warp beam up for storage, or down for work (as it is now), tightening to keep the section firmly in place. Thankfully, all I had to do was remove the knob, screw in the eye and replace the knob again, although, it still was a tight fit. It, too, is held in place with a rubber band, but on the other end. The "L" screw would actually fit into this space much better.

Another look at the set up.......

While at the hardware store, I also bought a few things to experiment with for another temple. Again, thanks to Matt, who got me thinking about improving the temple.

This time, I used alligator clips, found in electrical supplies, nylon cord, and fishing weights/sinkers. The weights are the same as I used before. The alligator clips have a shank on them, which is for wire to be fed through, then attached, but I found a nylon cord thin enough to pass through it and then melted the end of the cord, which caused a large, hard bubble on the end, too large to slip out of the shank. The same was true for the wire loop on the fishing weight, too, so no knots were needed to secure the cord at either end.

A close up showing the melted cord ends......

Unfortunately, I don't have any weaving on the floor loom, but I was able to "stage" its use using my twill sampler. They're clipped to each side of the sampler, hung over the rod, and gravity does the rest.

I don't know how much weight the alligator clip could handle, but I imagine more weight could be added to it. A close eye would have to be kept on the clip and what its attachment does to the woven fabric. This is all speculation on my part. I'm sure I will have some opinions after testing everything out. ;)