Design Flaw

As Ian and I were looking at dimensions, we realized that the original design has a major flaw in it. With the original design, when one of the sets of slots moves up and the other one moves down, the back st will end up hitting either the bottom or top of the front set. This would have prevented the vital "V" from being created to let the spool through the loom, creating the weave. We looked at two solutions to fix this problem.

The first solution to this problem involved using two moving rods fixed to a string and a third rod free of the string but stationary. The two rods move in opposite directions of each other which shifts the triangle formed by the string. Two eye-holes attached to the string will have the weaving string fed through it. The "V" would be created by the eye-holes shifting up and down. A mock-up was created to prove this point, shown below. The concept came from a a classroom loom which was explained by Bill's Creations on YouTube. The video is shown below.

Option One (Drawing)

Option One (Mock-up)

The second solution to this problem involves extending the height of the slots. Instead of the space between the holes in a set of slots being solid, this design would have the space around a hole be solid and space without a hole as open space. One set of slots would be stationary while the other set moves up and down. As long as the holes where the string goes through is centered on the y axis, the other slot can move its set of holes above and below the stationary set. We decided to go with the second option because it would be simpler to build, has less moving parts, and would be almost as easy to operate as the first option. It also falls closer to the original design we had. The next step will be continuing to put together a parts list and creating a CAD model so that a first attempt can be made at building one.

Option Two (Movement)

Option Two (3D Drawing)