Author: Matthijs Witsenburg / Source: Make: DIY Projects and Ideas for Makers
My wife showed me some pictures of old Norwegian box looms and asked me to make something similar. The reason being that a back-strap loom, worn on the body, can be impractical with small children running around. I’m not much of a woodworker, so I decided to design something that could be laser cut and then assembled with a minimum of work.
This box loom is designed for use with a rigid heddle or for card weaving. It can be used on a table or on your lap, and the work can be dropped at a moment’s notice when something else (kids, pets, etc.) requires attention right now.
The cloth and warp beams are held in slots rather than holes. This makes construction easier, and, as a bonus, you can remove and set aside an unfinished project if something more interesting comes along. Simply release the tension, carefully take out the beams, roll up your project, and secure it with rubber bands.
If you build more than one loom, the recesses on the lower edge allow for easy stacking.
Once you have the laser-cut parts, the rest of the loom can be made with the most basic of woodworking tools. All measurements are in millimeters, but none are so critical that they can’t just be eyeballed.
1. Laser-cut the pieces
On the cutting plan, the black lines must be cut, the red lines etched. Import the file in millimeters, not inches. The clearance for the finger joints is 0mm.
The kerf from the laser should be sufficient for these joints. If you were to use a CNC router instead of a laser cutter, you may want to widen the joints or play with the thickness of your bit.
All parts are nested in a 500mm×500mm area. If you use solid wood rather than ply, keep in mind the wood grain and move the pieces around as needed.
2. Shape the panels
The bottom, front, and back panels will need some shaping. All edges that need shaping have an etched line, indicating where the beveled edge starts. All sides with an etched line will end up on the outside of the loom (Figure A).
Clamp each panel to a work surface and remove material outside this line. I prefer to use a wood plane for this. A rasp or coarse sandpaper will work as well.
3. Glue the loom body
First, do a dry fit to see how the panels go together and where the glue actually needs to be. Spread a thin layer of carpenter’s glue on one side of…
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