Last month I was able to purchase a 16 shaft, 48″ Macomber loom second hand. This is my dream loom – I had been looking at the cost of a new one, and knew I wanted to save up for that one day when I had the appropriate space for it. But, that plan quickly changed when I found a used one for sale while looking through the Boston Weaver’s Guild Used Equipment list.
This loom was originally purchased in the 1970’s by a weaver in Harrisville, NH. She has had many different careers, and had sat on selling this loom for about a year. It is in decent condition – the wood is solid, all the pieces were there, and these things are built like tanks. It took about 3 1/2 hours to disassemble it enough to move it from the previous owner’s basement, into the U-Haul, and then up three flights of stairs into my Cambridge apartment.
The loom also needs some work – it is dusty, there are tiny traces of mold on the treadles, and the rubber all needs to be replaced. Yesterday Jeremy helped me get started on the clean up. We removed the old rubber and, based on some recommendations for dealing with the small bits of mold, we wiped it down with warm sudsy water and sprayed it with a 1:1 vinegar and water solution. Now that the vinegar is dry, I’ll wipe the whole thing down with Murphy’s Oil Soap. The mold seems to be pretty surface level and I think the vinegar will do its job in killing it, and the oil will help seal it, but the stains will still be there. I think to fully remove the mold, I would have to sand and re-stain, which isn’t really feasible in my apartment. Hopefully that choice doesn’t come back to bite me, but I may do that when I eventually move and have to take it apart again.
The beams also need the apron strings replaced. The ones on there are dried out and seem like they could snap under tension. The kits are still made by Macomber and not too expensive.
My goal is to get it in working order by the end of the month, but it has been slow going so far. I want to make sure I take the time to do things right (within the constraints of my apartment) so that it can be my dream loom for pretty much the rest of my life.
