| Paint the screw eye where it catches on threads or lets them escape the eye with nail polish. it may take a couple of applications to coat all around the tiny space to close the eye completely.Use this on screw eyes on your doubling stand (see a previous tip) or on screw eyes on your special raddle. Directions for the special raddle were in another previous tip which is given again here. |
Making a homemade raddleUse a piece of scrap lumber (but use soft wood) as long as the width of your loom and about 2″ wide. Mark 1/2″ increments along the whole length on a line that is 3/4″ in from one long edge. This offsets the nails so there is room for clamps in front of them during beaming.  To make a simple raddle,pound finishing nails or nails with small heads at every 1/2″ mark. (Offsetting them, rather than lining them up single file, helps prevent splitting the wood, and allows you to make 1/4″ sections if you like. See Figure A.
To make a special raddle,2 put in #12 or #14 screw eyes instead of nails on the line 3/4″ in from the edge for 1/2″ sections. See Figure B. Then make a holding rod with a straightened wire coat hanger. The holding rod is all you need to hold the warp threads in the sections during beaming. If your raddle is long, use 2 holding rods, one from each end. A screw eye in the end makes it easy to hang up when not in use.  . |