https://ibb.co/pjtzDSxx
https://ibb.co/N6YYPG8k
https://ibb.co/HfcR5KnT

Photo 1. Threads at top of shed sitting too low due to the fact that shaft 4 , which carries these threads, has not returned to full 'up' position when treadle attached to shafts 1,2 and 3 I'd depressed.

Photo 2. Shows what happens to the same shed when I have manually pushed up frame 4 to where it should have returned automatically i.e now looks like it should.

Photo 3. Shows top of frame 4 at half mast. It should be up at the same level as frames 5 to 8 behind it which are not in use for this project. Frames 1 to 3 which are in the fully down position are out of shot.

Hello all - help needed please on independent movement of shafts when weaving weft predominant twill on 4 shafts as shown in final part of Season 4. I tied up the treadles in the order shown by Jane and when weaving warp predominant ( i.e treadles to left of centre as labelled 1, 2, 3, 4 by Jane) all is well. The problem starts when I change to weft predominant and say, for example I press down the next treadle, i.e the one tied up to shafts 1,2 and 3. What is happening is that the frame which is NOT tied to the treadle I am depressing, so in this case, frame 4, seems not to return fully to the up position. It sort of stays at half mast ( see photos) with the result that the available shed is reduced by half and the floating selvedge and upper shed ( consisting in this case of the threads on frame 4) sits at the same level as the floating Selvedge. At first I thought it was just one shaft not returning fully to the up position, but it seems to happen regardless of whether I am pressing down the treadle attached to frames 1,2,3 or 2,3,4 or 3,4,1 or 4,1,2. The frame which should be fully up, is not. I tried attaching the spring in the castle to a different hole on the texsolv cord to increase the tension on the 'lagging' shaft, but that didn't fix the problem and, as I say, the half mast issue seems to apply regardless of which frame is involved. I really can't figure out what is causing this problem and would be very happy to hear if anyone has come across it themselves, or has any suggestions. Thanks.

Hello Kathleen- I got your reply into my own email account, but for some reason, I can't see it here following my post. I don't know if the issue is in this forum or at my end. Very frustrating anyway and I am sure it isn't at your end because it has happened with other posts I have made.

Anyway - thank you for your reply! Yes I did set the heights of the frames as per the assembly instructions so I don't think that is it. The problem only seems to happen when a bunch of adjacent shafts are being lowered simultaneously e.g. 1,2,3.....and for some reason shaft four seems to get dragged into it ....as if the independent movement of the shafts is being interfered with somewhere along the line...whether at the lams, somewhere in the spring arrangement...at those wooden 'rockers' that the texsolv cords run around in the castle etc. It is quite annoying and hasn't happened at all when weaving 2/2 twill on the same threadings and warp etc.

You could try doing a skeleton tie up just to try to track down where the problem is. Then press the treadle to just lower shaft one and check it’s moving as it should. Then just lower shaft two, then three and then four. This may show you which other shaft is dragging the fourth shaft down.

Very strange that it doesn’t happen when you’re weaving 2/2 twill. The only other thing I can think of is to tighten the tension of shaft four in the castle by shortening texsolv cord by two or three loops.

Hopefully some more experienced weavers may have some good advice.

Hi Kathleen - thanks very much for those suggestions. I am not too familiar with the concept of a skeleton tie up, but would the fact that I have each of the treadles on the left hand side only tied up to a single frame be equivalent to that? If so, then it is interesting that when I am doing warp predominant weaving using those treadles in sequence, there is no problem. The idea of increasing the tension by shortening texsolv cords also occurred to me, but when I tried that, though only on one frame, it didn't solve the problem. If only there were a weaving expert with powers of bilocation, they could beam themselves over, take a look, and sort it out in about 30 seconds I suspect! Maybe it's time to emigrate to Canada....Salt Spring Island to be precise!

A skeleton tie up or direct tie up just means that one treadle is tied to one shaft only. By shaft, I mean what you’re referring to as a frame. It doesn’t matter which treadle you use. It’s just one treadle for one shaft.

Hopefully, you’ll get an answer soon to your problem .

OK thanks!