Over the weekend, Jeremy and I started the more involved parts of refurbishing the Macomber. I had already wiped down the wood with Murphy’s Wood Soap (based on other online recommendations), so the next step was to start de-rusting.

We used both liquid and gel Evapo-rust. We found that the gel worked really well, but it had been sitting in the jug for a while so it took a LOT of shaking to get it back to a gel consistency.

We made it through about half of the bottom lamms and all of the upper jacks. We definitely should have taken more care with removing the upper jacks, because it was only after removal that we realized they were on there in a specific order…and unlabeled…haha.

But, after cleaning, we laid them out and I think I got them back in the right order. They’re not precision machined items anyway, so I think the order we have them in will work. I also reapplied vaseline on the rods and between each of the jacks for fresh lubrication.

We also removed the old apron strings from the front and back beams – they were weak and dried out. We then needed to attach new string, and saw from this blog post that we needed a way to keep the loops very close to the exact same length. We used my knitting machine as our “pins” to loop the the string, and I think that worked well.

I tried to get the rust off of the old apron rods, but they’re pretty gunked up. I opted for buying new stainless steel rods since the yarn will be on there directly and I will be handling them a lot.

All of this took about 1.5 days. The majority of the work was applying the rust remover, waiting, and then reapplying. We found that two rounds of the gel worked best on the lamms.

The next weekend we get to work on this, we’re planning to do the rust removal 2nd half of the lamms, reattach the lamms and the necessary the rods that join the jacks and lamms, and start the rust removal on the shafts. We’ll also attach the new apron strings to the back beam, and the new apron rods if they’ve arrived.

The last step, after finishing rust removal and reassembly, will be re-engaging the brake. My Harrisville Designs loom has basically an identical brake set up, so I’m going to use that as my guide for the brake. I’m wondering if I need to replace the cord used for the brake. It is still solid, but it seems kind of kinked, and I’m wondering if that will cause issues.

I may also try to sand and reapply the clear finish in a few places, but that will be last and may not be while in this apartment (since I will need good ventilation).

Fingers crossed this will all be back in working order soon 🤞🏻