Melissa has posted a comment asking where to find a Cylinder Filling Machine. I think it's a great question, so I'm bumping it up here as a new post:
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Melissa said...
Someone has gifted me a weavers delight loom, and I have found your blog a great help. I have never worked a loom before so this is all new to me!
I do have a question for you. My loom did not come with the cylinder loading machine, so do you suppose I can load them by hand? And, have you seen any of the loaders for sale?
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Here is the reply I posted:
Hi Melissa,
What a fantastic gift! Congratulations on your new WD. I'm glad the blog is of some use.
I can think of 2 places to look for the cylinder loading machine:
One is Leslie at Riverside Loomworks, where you can buy parts:
rivloom@sbcglobal.net
The other is to join the RugTalk group on Yahoo Groups and ask there if anyone has a spare:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Rugtalk/
RugTalk is a great group of experienced rugweavers helping each other (and newbies like me).
Laura
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I forgot to answer part of her question, so here's the rest: I haven't tried filling the cylinders by hand, but I suppose it can be done. Find a stick to beat the rags in with, and then try stuffing them in and beating them down. The goal is to beat them down firmly into flat layers as you go. If you can find a way to feed them from above, as the filling machine does, that will go faster. If you are handy you could probably build something yourself for filling cylinders.
The machine is fast though, so it'd be worth finding one if building one doesn't sound appealing.
Does anyone have other ideas or suggestions for her? If so, please add a comment.
