Building a power loom

[Humph7ey]

The woolen raised part is possibly made like moquette using wires. The Jacquard head is ready and just needs the cards punching.
I now have more info on loom building and have enough scrap lying around to come up with something.
The insertion of the moquette wires will need some careful thought, but most things can be overcome.
They seem to be 1.25mm apart.
Question, Is a solenoid, like a lock bolt suitable to drive the flying shuttle over the short distance?
The material was made in 1929, so I think it was well before synthetics.
I hope my 40 needle head will be enough.

 

[Humph7ey]

Hello again folks.
The electronics are now virtually complete using a Arduino Mega. A kind chap wrote the code for me. Since then I toasted the Mega and am now waiting for a new one.
I tried using a shuttle-less design for the loom, but it was too much going wrong with the selvage so I changed the design to an under pick for the shuttle control.
A look on Youtube under my name "Humphrey Lees shuttle movie" should find the latest results.
The wire insertion/extraction part of the loom should be an interesting challenge. I have a gripper mounted on a small x/y arrangement that has a solenoid operated gripper that will be moved by the beater arms two ways. The actual extraction will be controlled by an optical interrupter as the beaten up wire is in place.
The type of fabric is usually called Carriage Lace or Pasting Lace where there is a hidden edge for nailing or gluing.