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THIS IS THE TEST SITE OF EUROBRICKS! ×
THIS IS THE TEST SITE OF EUROBRICKS!

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Posted (edited)

So perhaps a bit of an explanation first. I live in a small town with a lot of history in England, so as soon as I saw what @Jim was after I knew I’d want to create a historical machine. I thought about a printing press, I thought about a steam engine (without the steam of course) and then I thought about the history of where I live. The town used to have a Mill, it was originally a Corn Mill and then got converted to a Cotton Mill. It was originally powered by water but then in its later years steam. Unfortunately the mill is long gone, but it took me down the route of Mills and the Industrial Revolution.

So the plan is to build a Power Loom and ideally a representation of the Lancashire Loom, see my pic below, invented by Bullough and Kenworthy in 1842. I don’t live in Lancashire before you ask, but I do live near to where these looms were used. They truly were a marvel of the industrial age, once I find a good video I’ll post a link too.

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My idea is to try and replicate the mechanism as closely as possible. I’m obviously not going to be able to have the same number of threads as the real loom and I think I’m going to have challenges with gear sizes so may have to use chains to connect gears if they need to be spaced apart. But the plan is to replicate the essence of the machine. I’m aware @nico71 has already created a superb example. I hope mine can at least meet my expectations.

The loom has 3 basic operations:

Shedding - dividing the lines of thread - an up and down motion

Picking - projecting the shuttle to the other side - perhaps the most complex as I need to “fire” something from one side to the other

Beating-up - compacting the cloth - a pushing motion 

I’ve started so far by building some of the basic mechanisms in the Loom, and hopefully once back at work a colleague has told me they have some more photos and videos to help me on top of the ones I’ve got myself and from YouTube.

I’ve got a bit of the Shedding and Beating mechanisms here plus the mechanism for keeping the cloth taught once it’s formed.

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Once I’ve built the basic mechanisms it’s then a process of working out how they all link together to run, this runs off a single input belt!

Hope to do weekly updates on this, enjoy.

 

Edited by Seasider
Posted

Now you have my attention! :D

15 minutes ago, Seasider said:

Picking - projecting the shuttle to the other side - perhaps the most complex as I need to “fire” something from one side to the other 

When the original style of the shuttle weaving machines is not do-able in Lego, you could maybe go for a rapier weaving machine, which uses an flexible or rigid arm to carry the weft yarn.

Posted (edited)

Just a small update from me. Work has been busy this week, first week back post Christmas and New Year, so haven’t had much build time. I’ve spent a lot of it watching various videos of looms, some full size, some desktop to understand their workings and also I’m waiting on a Bricklink order for some parts to help my progress. So todays update won’t show much.

firstly a random collection of mechanisms I’ve been playing about with.

54262237988_e63ae642cb_b.jpg

and then second I’ve been trying to start on some positioning of stuff and working out how everything is linked from the videos I’ve seen and so this is very much a WIP concept to play with.

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one thing I’ve got from this design is the cams for both the “up/down” of the threads and the “firing” of the shuttle both run off the same shaft. And the “back/forth” of the shuttle carriage runs off at I’m guessing half the speed of the cam-shaft.

I’ve done a google on how to get a 2:1 gear ratio and it gave me 2 options either using a 20/40 or a 28/56(turntable). But I can’t work out how to space the 28/56 to get it to mesh correctly.

@JamiesBrickJams - any advice on where errors often occur? I’m thinking this may be a bigger challenge than I realise !

 

Edited by Seasider
Posted
14 hours ago, schraubedrin said:

Why don't you use a 24/12 gearing?
This is achievable with a 1 stud vertical offset.

Because I’m after maximising the space between the axles without needing more gears. So that’s why I’m looking at the larger potential gear combinations.

Posted (edited)

2:1 gear setup worked out thanks to a video by “Technic Brick Power” on YouTube.

54268585201_588ccebf39_b.jpg

Hopefully will have a chance to build this into a frame a position some of the cams etc.

Edited by Seasider

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