A New Loom

I've just acquired a new-to-me (but nowhere near new) loom. $200USD - how could I resist?

The loom is a 36-inch Leclerc Artisat, built in 1975, if I'm interpreting the serial number format accurately. What I wanted was a small (in the 22-24-inch range) loom with either 4 or 8 shafts. Mostly I want one because I have quite a bit of handspun yarn that I need to use up during my lifetime, and the loom waste on the dobby or the jacquard is 24 to 36 inches, which means too much handspun down the drain. And for $200, plus some time investment, I'll get what I need.

All the heddles are the thin wire kind, and rusted to hell and back, so they need to be replaced with some inserted-eye heddles, and some small plastic parts are suffering from material fatigue and just shatter if  you touch them. I've ordered replacements from Leclerc. Thankfully, the included 8-dent/inch reed is stainless steel, so I should be able to clean it up and then shorten it a bit to match the new loom width.

So, after I spend a few more days cleaning this baby up (I can't believe how filthy somebody let this loom get - it really needed a new, loving home!), and DH provides some labor to shorten all the horizontal pieces, I'll have a [cleaner, smaller] loom to use for my handspun, or any other 4-shaft project.

Here's the before shot, with the shafts and treadles already removed: