Bexell Loom progress

The loom has been assembled and the chains removed and replaced with texsolv cords. The bottom tie up cords had been cut by the previous owner when disassembling, but I have a pretty good idea of the length they were. I replaced all of those cords with texsolv too. The original heddles were string, very dirty and yellow, so when the new heddles arrived from Yarn Barn yesterday, I put those on right away.

Here she is after being washed with Murphy's oil soap and outfitted with texsolv. I bought 600 heddles but on a 60" loom, they look lost! But that will be plenty for doing the rugs and saddle blankets I plan on using this loom for.

This loom is very old, possibly one of the early Bexells? There isn't a metal plate on the beater support that you usually see, but it is stamped instead. 

Right now, I'm working on a design for a shaft switching device. On my old Toika, I made one with eye screws and 2 pieces of wood and lots of texsolv, but I would like to have levers on this one. I want to weave with 4 end blocks using 5 ends per inch, so I'm using Peter Colllingwood's design from his book, but figuring out the best way to make it work with narrower levers. When I start working on that, I'll post pictures.
I also need to do some sampling with a new wool weft yarn to see if that is the sett that will work. I've used that before on yarns that I got 10 years ago, but I don't know if that manufacturer is still in business, so am doing some checking around to determine what yarn I'm going to use, then I'll know what sett will work, and how to space the levers on the SS device.

For some reason, I have been getting lots of ideas in the middle of the night! A few nights ago, I had an idea for a silver pendant design and didn't want to forget, so I downloaded a sketching app on my phone, then sketched the idea out to save. The next night at 3:30am, I had an idea for a rug design for my living room, so grabbed my phone again to sketch it. I've been having so many ideas lately that I am keeping a list with what I want to accomplish each day and then checking it off as I go. There's too many ideas and not enough time!!
Today, I'm working through more of the yarn stash to see what is usable and what isn't.

Yesterday, I also worked on the reeds that came with the loom to see if I can get the rust off. I used naval jelly and it removed some, but I need to work on those again today and see if I can get the rest off. They don't seem to be pitted, just have some surface rust.

Then there is a part that I wonder about.

It came with the loom but I'm not familiar with any loom part that this could be. One of the things that was included with the loom was a large vertical warping mill that only had one piece with dowels, instead of the usual 2 - one for each end of the warp. At first I thought the other end was missing, but now I wonder if the loose dowel in the box of parts was meant to go in this hole and then bolted towards the bottom of the warping mill to hold the end of the warp? There's too much yarn in the dining room right now to set up the mill and check out my theory, but once I get through some of that, I can see if that's what this part is for.