oster@dewey.soe.berkeley.edu (David Phillip Oster) (10/23/87)
I received an interesting brochure in the mail recently, describing an unusual computer peripheral: A loom. From AVL Looms. For the cost of a medium price laser printer, you can weave your output into fabric. I've always wondered, since Jacqaurd looms were the first "computer" controlled output devices, why they weren't more popular for the home market. Their looms are available in 40", 48" and 60" widths, allow warps up to 100 yards long. Operation: The loom has a left and right foot pedal, close enough that you can use a single foot. Tread alternately on the left and right treadle (foot pedal), and the appropriate subset spring-loaded set of 16 harnesses raises. Flick your wrist to send the flying shuttle across the cloth, then push the beater bar forward, then back to press the new woof thread into the fabric. (I don't know enough about weaving to know whether you must manually move the shuttle across the warp, or whether it is done for you by the motion of the beater bar.) Periodically you stop, and crank the warp another notch on its ratchet, winding up completed cloth and revealing new bare, sections of warp thread. The computer interface is responsible for lifting the right combination of harnesses in response to a press on the foot pedal. Here are quotes from their brochure: "with its 16 harnesses, the weaver can do 3 block Damask, fancy 16 harness twills, up to 14 block summer and winter weaves and much more. In addition, when doing 12 and 14 harness weaves, 2 to 4 harnesses are available for the selvedges." "produce between 2 and 4 yards an hour." [1] [1] Oh well, so much for the dream of weaving at home some of the complex Jacquard paisleys I have seen. specs: Weaving Width 30" 40" 48" 60" 60" Loom Height 70" 48" 65.5" 65.5" 70" Loom Width 48" 52" 55" 67" 78" Front to Back 60" 46" 58" 58" 60" No. Harnesses 20 16 16 16 20 No. Treadles 2 2 2 2 2 No. Heddles 2,000 1,600 1,600 2,000 2,400 Weight (lbs.) 375 300 400 425 475 Price ($) 4395 2695 3895 4295 4995 + Beater ($) (low) 95 95 195 195 195 or Beater ($) (high) 995 195 995 995 995 [2] + Warp Beam ($) (low) 150 150 245 245 245 or Warp Beam ($) (high) 347 200 377 377 377 [3] + crating ($) 89 79 89 89 89 + Rs232 -> Loom Interface 1795 1395 1395 1395 1795 software: (typical $) 250 250 250 250 250 [4] ----------------------- total price (low) 6774 4664 6069 6469 7569 [5] [2] $995.00 buys a 4-box flying shuttle system, $195 a 1-box flying shuttle system (40" loom) The low price is not a flying shuttle. [3] The low price is a beam going all the way across the loom. The higher price ones are split. Presumably this allows dividing the loom for simultaneous weaving of independent pieces of cloth [4] Software ranges in price from 75.00 to 300.00. [5] I choose the minimum price options to arrive at these totals. (Shipping from Chico, and California sales tax (if appropriate) is extra.) Standard features: Solid maple construction, automatic cloth storage system (for those long warps) automatic warp tensioning plain warp beam standard beater long and short aprons polyester heddles 10 Dent Reed Warp & Lease sticks 2-year warranty (non-electrical parts) 90 day warranty (electrical parts) AVL has software compatible with Apple II series, Apple Macintosh, and IBM PC series computers. Jon Violette is the company president and Jim Ahrens is the chief engineer AVL Looms was founded in 1978. AVL Looms 601 Orange Street Chico, CA 95928 1-800-626-9615 in California: 916 893 4915 These looms require muscle power to make them go. I wonder how much more a completely automatic rs232-loom would cost. By comparison, the 4-color embroidery sewing machine I saw demoed at MacWorld a few years ago, sold for about $10,000.00. It had 4 needles, each atached to its own bobbin of thread, each in a different color. It could handle about an 8"x10" area. Are RS-232 embroidery sewing machines any cheaper now? These could have an interface like a standard 4-color pen plotter. Do they? (Imagine accidently leaving output redirected to the wrong device, and having your business correspondence woven or embroidered when you meant to print it. (It would sure impress the recipient!) --- David Phillip Oster --A Sun 3/60 makes a poor Macintosh II. Arpa: oster@dewey.soe.berkeley.edu --A Macintosh II makes a poor Sun 3/60. Uucp: {uwvax,decvax,ihnp4}!ucbvax!oster%dewey.soe.berkeley.edu