The Shaft Switching Platform

This is a very simple explanation of what the shaft switching platform is and does. It was designed by Peter Collingwood and the picture (which is all I had to work from) is lifted from page 113 of his book "Rug Weaving Techniques."

I was ask to build one by a local weaver. The material I chose in Fir. I selected it because it closely matched the Swedish Pine from which the loom was constructed.

Basically it is 110 levers mounted on a frame so that they flop from one side to the other on a center shaft. The shaft is 1/4 Stainless Steel. The overall length of the lever set is 44 inches so there are five levers in two inches. Each lever is 3/8"X3/4" and about 6 inches long. They are bored on one end to slip over the shaft and have a 1/8" hole down through the outer end for the line it controls.

This is a picture of the completed platform (sitting on the side door of my truck).

It is not evident in the picture but the levers are book matched - that is looking at the end of each pair of levers the grain forms a chevron. I did not do that for any particular reason other than I wanted to.

This next picture shows the shaft switching levers installed in the loom. It is pretty confusing to me, too. But it seems to work well and the weaver loves it. I also built the beam that is on the top of the loom (and I confess I don't know what it is called) but we redesigned it so that the stuff that hangs from it is swung away from the operator and gives her a little more room to work

If you are interested in seeing what the shaft switching levers do, you can visit Emilie's site by clicking on this link: Rug weaver's Site

May y2K+1