Finishing (Wood, That is)

What you see arrayed on the worktables in the garage are all the wood parts of my soon-to-be AVL Jacq3G loom.



The folks at AVL are prevented by EPA regulations from putting a hard finish on the wood of their looms, like they used to do when I bought my first AVL in 1997. Instead, they do an oil dip that creates a finish that doesn't dry hard and thereby protect the wood the way a polyurethane finish would. DH-the-woodworker and I decided we'd rather go to the effort of putting a proper hard finish on all the wood bits. DH, being a one-man shop and an artist rather than a production woodworker, isn't required to get an EPA permit to apply wood finish.

Anyway, on Tuesday afternoon we went to Chico (a 5-hour drive) to pick up the parts, drove back home Wednesday, and spent today sanding and putting the first coat of finish on the wood. There will be several more rounds of finishing and sanding, more finishing, more sanding, and then we drive the parts back to Chico, probably mid next week.

There, AVL will completely assemble the entire system, jacquard modules and all, and perform some system tests, after which they will disassemble the loom enough to make it shippable, and deliver it to me some time in early November. At least that's the plan.

In any case, not much weaving going on around here, as it behooves me to participate fully in this exercise since it's for my benefit.

In the spirit of keeping this post textile related: the motel in Yuba City (which is about 30 miles south of Chico and has more inexpensive motels and cheaper gasoline than Chico does) did offer this tidbit of upholstery on the desk chair.



At first glance, I thought it was a plaited twill. Okay, yes, sort of, but there are enough irregularities in the design that it must have been woven on a jacquard loom. The chair was otherwise unimportant, and not particularly comfortable (nor was the bed - it was a very cheap motel) but at least the upholstery was appealing!