Tien Chiu

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Winding a sectional warp with the AVL Warping Wheel

I’ve now wound 17.5 miles of warp onto my back beam using the warping wheel (3.5 miles left to go), and since my setup is a little unusual, I thought I’d explain.

I start by putting my cones directly under the beater of the loom, and running the yarns up through the reed:

Cones of yarn on the floor, directly under the beater. (Please ignore the mess.)
Cones of yarn on the floor, directly under the beater. (Please ignore the mess.)
Yarns running up through the reed from the cones directly underneath
Yarns running up through the reed from the cones directly underneath
Warp yarns passing over the shafts on the way to the back of the loom.
Warp yarns passing over the shafts on the way to the back of the loom.

Then, I put a tension box on the back beam, and run the yarns through the tension box.  This evens out the tension as it winds onto the warping wheel, and helps control the threads as they wind on.  (Thanks to Sandra Rude for suggesting it to me!)

Tension box mounted on the back of the loom.
Tension box mounted on the back of the loom.

Finally, I mount a paddle to the front of the tension box, which allows me to wind multiple strands quickly, with a 1×1 cross:

Threads passing through paddle en route to the warping wheel.
Threads passing through paddle en route to the warping wheel.

This setup seems to work pretty well for my fine-thread weaving.  But I’m curious: if you have and use a warping wheel, what do you do?