Seasider Posted January 5 Posted January 5 (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. 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. 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 January 5 by Seasider Quote
Jundis Posted January 5 Posted January 5 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. Quote
JamiesBrickJams Posted January 9 Posted January 9 Amazing, I'll be keenly following this. Most of my looms have had pretty high error rates, so I'd love to see a design that runs well! Quote
Seasider Posted January 12 Author Posted January 12 (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. 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. 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 January 12 by Seasider Quote
schraubedrin Posted January 12 Posted January 12 3 hours ago, Seasider said: 2:1 gear ratio Why don't you use a 24/12 gearing? This is achievable with a 1 stud vertical offset. Quote
Seasider Posted January 13 Author Posted January 13 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. Quote
Seasider Posted January 15 Author Posted January 15 (edited) 2:1 gear setup worked out thanks to a video by “Technic Brick Power” on YouTube. Hopefully will have a chance to build this into a frame a position some of the cams etc. Edited January 15 by Seasider Quote
Seasider Posted January 27 Author Posted January 27 So an update from me. Haven’t been able to do much on this recently until yesterday (Sunday) when I had a solid 4 hours available to build. Work and life as usual have got in the way, and trying to watch The Expanse before it’s removed from Amazon! So this is what my productive Sunday gave me … So this is the gear set integrated into a frame and the first mechanism placed. And it works like this … https://youtube.com/shorts/-k3KDrkfLfQ?si=r08DPeFPfkxXTt9f All the red pins are just temporary place holders at the moment. Next tasks: Add the next mechanism - the “back/forth” one Add some more bracing / support The big problem is I already know I’m going to be tight to the deadline on this. This coming weekend I’m busy sorting out my car and a few other things. But this is definitely something I’ll finish even if it’s after the submission date. Quote
Davidz90 Posted January 27 Posted January 27 1 hour ago, Seasider said: trying to watch The Expanse before it’s removed from Amazon! One of my favourite shows! Is it going to be removed? But back on topic, looks brilliant! First time I'm seeing chains used like this. Quote
Seasider Posted January 27 Author Posted January 27 46 minutes ago, Davidz90 said: One of my favourite shows! Is it going to be removed? But back on topic, looks brilliant! First time I'm seeing chains used like this. All I know is at least seasons 1-3 are leaving the UK in about 11-12 days time. The first 3 seasons were made by the Syfy channel and the other 3 by Amazon, some I’m hoping season 4 onwards stays. I’ve just started season 3 so need to watch at least 1 per day! back on topic … As to the chains, I thought they seemed more interesting than using string, plus also easier to get the same length Quote
Seasider Posted February 2 Author Posted February 2 Update from me … Might not look like much but there have been lots of little updates. Had some Bricklink orders in so tidied the frame and also changed the cams. I’ve widened the whole thing so now it’s an odd number of studs across the middle and I’ve started to add some supporting structures to stop the axles flexing too much across the the width. For the keen eyes you’ll notice there’s a loose axle as I need to remount and put supports on this as it’s flexing too much but I think that’s partially down to the new larger cams. You’ll also notice I’ve added the place holder for the fore/aft arm. Not sure when next update is due to stuff going on. Quote
Seasider Posted February 9 Author Posted February 9 This weeks update … The frame on the left is basically what you saw last week (plus a minor update). On the right is where I am now … Why? Well I worked out I needed more movement in frames that go up/down, so I made them larger. Then I moved them relative to the drive cam, by moving the axle that was loose in the last update. This had to be mounted at a half stud offset vertically. Then from all this I worked out I needed to lift everything up which I could have done with just stacking some liftarms under the frame. But instead I took it all apart and moved the gear system up by 2 studs. And so I’ve ended with the right hand frame. I've since made the other side and I’ve started work on the supports for the axles that go for the arms and cams. But ran out of time today. Definitely not going to make the deadline now but will be doing regular work on this as I’d love to see it working properly. Quote
TeamThrifty Posted February 9 Posted February 9 Excellent machine to replicate. 17th and 18th century was full of proper engineering, and bloody clever engineers - makes our modern cad assisted, disposable efforts look pitiful in comparison. Its a era rich in innovation that lends itself technic very nicely indeed! Quote
aeh5040 Posted February 10 Posted February 10 Sorry that you don't think you'll make the deadline, but I for one very much hope you will continue to pursue this. It looks really interesting, and especially noteworthy that you are aiming for maximum realism. Quote
Seasider Posted February 16 Author Posted February 16 This weeks update … I placed a minifigure on the top to give you some scale. Most of this week has been building the axle supports in the middle for the cams and lever arms. Some idiot (me) decided to put the axle nearest the camera on a half stud offset in 2 axes ! Which caused a lot of pain. The rest of my time has been adding a few more brace pieces. Then I felt like testing it properly, up until this time I’ve only cranked the gears by hand. So here we go … Yes it works, looks like I need to do some tweaks on the amount of chain and the liftarms that connect to the lever arms. But happy to see it running at speed. No update next weekend as there’s a Lego show I’m off to on Sunday. Quote
aeh5040 Posted February 16 Posted February 16 Cool! I hope it doesn't shake itself to pieces... Quote
nico71 Posted March 5 Posted March 5 Very nice to see other loom ! Yours is pretty fast, I do not know how you will handle the shuttle especially at this speed, but this is why I use coded drum to sequence the different movements, so the shuttle has the time to travel. I advise to start working on that point, even if it is not finished or reliable because as soon as you put the shuttle and reels, this is a completely different world with the tension and non LEGO material. This is always the same feeling when I build braiding machine, movement is perfect without non LEGO stuff, and when I put them, a lot of problem occurs, so good luck ! Quote
Seasider Posted March 16 Author Posted March 16 So it’s been a month since my last update as I’ve been busy with lots of other stuff and not had time to work on the loom. Plus I’ve reached a head scratching moment, but more of that later. My first distraction was Bricktastic in Manchester, I go every year and it’s a great show if you get a chance. This year it had got even bigger and it was nice to see a few displays of Lego collections (classic space, ninjago, technic) and not just MOCs. There was also someone selling vintage Lego sets and I picked up this beauty. Last year I’d decided to collect the “classic cars” and I’d thought I had them all until I saw this in the technic display and luckily the seller had one! I could have spent a lot of money on that stall as he had a Space Shuttle and also a Space Monorail too! Thankfully I held off temptation. So back to the Loom. I’ve been working on the shuttle firing mechanism and my initial problem wa how to get the firing arm to return to its original position. A lot of the looms I’ve seen have a spring in tension, which we don’t have in technic. First I had this but found the shock was resisting a lot. So I simplified it and I’ve got this which primarily relies on the weight naturally pulling it back to the right. Note the rubber connector to act as a bumper too. I then tried to work on the mechanism to “activate” this. Looking at some looms I found something like this… But it’s not working as efficiently as I want so I’m back to the head scratching at the moment and taking some time out to build some F1 cars. I’ve been watching some more loom videos and the problem they often don’t linger on a part of the loom long enough to work out the mechanism. I might need a trip up to the National Trust Mill to make my own video! Also it doesn’t help when they’re poorly lit rooms and made of black cast iron! so I finished of by adjusting the frame yet again and this is the current iteration. So some progress but not as much as I’d like. Any advice on how to do the activation of the shuttle firing arm is most appreciated. Remember I’m trying to have it all linked off a single drive. @nico71 I was hoping you’d find my thread at some stage. I’ve watched your loom videos a few times for inspiration. My plan has always been to slowly add bits and get them to work and then modify and repeat. So once I’ve got a shuttle to fly across I was then going to step by step add the thread and adjust as I go. My ideal goal is to try and get something to run at a fast speed like a real loom. Who knows if it’s possible, but that’s the goal. Quote
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.