It Looks Like a Loom at Last!

Most of the Artisat's parts are now assembled:

I have no heddles yet, so there's no point in putting the shafts together. The cloth apron has been laundered, cut to size, and serged on all the raw edges. It still needs to be stapled onto the cloth beam; at the moment, it's just draped in place.

DH made a wonderful castle/tray for me; the original Artisat model had no castle at all - the two uprights just stood there by themselves, with no cross-piece on top. The tray will be very useful! In its final iteration, there will be an LED light strip on the underside of the tray, to make threading easier.

I've only tied up the two center treadles so far, 1+3 on the left one and 2+4 on the right, so we could test the lift action of all of the jacks. Until there are shafts installed, there's no need to  tie up more treadles.

We're still waiting for some information on dimensions and placement of a replacement brake release treadle, so the rope the previous owner used (with her foot??) to release the warp brake and advance the warp is just hanging down in back.

I may decide to replace the whole warp brake system with a live weight tension system. However, I'd like to have a functioning warp brake 'just in case.'

I am very grateful to Leclerc for having all the assembly manuals and drawings for their looms (past and present models) online on their web site. Most of the assembly process was just plain common sense, but there were a few details that were only clarified for us by the drawings on the Leclerc site. They make good products, and support a large population of loom owners very well. Hats off to M. Brassard and his company!