[HN Gopher] Boomloom: Think with your hands
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Boomloom: Think with your hands
Author : rasengan0
Score : 158 points
Date : 2026-03-20 17:13 UTC (2 days ago)
(HTM) web link (www.theboomloom.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.theboomloom.com)
| Nzen wrote:
| tl;dr This is a project page describing a small hand woven loom.
| Small, means a little wider than a palm and maybe half the length
| of a forearm (depending on which you buy). Basically, you will
| run a string between two circular combs along the length of the
| stand and weave a separate thread or yarn horizontally many times
| to make a piece of fabric. These seem to cost at least 100$.
| smallerize wrote:
| The frames are $80 or $140. The circular combs are only $20.
| y-curious wrote:
| I am inspired to 3D print this, thank you!
| jagged-chisel wrote:
| Do you have files for this?
| debbiedowner wrote:
| Does this scale to dining placemat size?
| bodge5000 wrote:
| I'm not sure I understand the title, does looming help you think
| or something? I don't really have much inherent interest in
| looming, but I would have a lot of interest in that
| newsclues wrote:
| Creative thinking, patterns and mental focus.
|
| Once you get the hang of it, it's the sort of task you can do
| and run deep mental processes in the background.
| bodge5000 wrote:
| Is that specific to looming? I already do a bit of miniature
| painting which feels like it'd be similar but that takes too
| much focus to be running background processes, but maybe I'm
| just not good enough at it yet
| shaunxcode wrote:
| This is the hackernews I desire!
| ashwinnair99 wrote:
| There's something to this. A lot of ideas that feel fuzzy in your
| head get clearer the moment you have to physically arrange them.
| Not sure an app captures that but worth trying.
| nlehuen wrote:
| See also: writing a design doc before writing code :)
| flux3125 wrote:
| 100 bucks? I'll pass, thanks.
| Fluorescence wrote:
| In primary school, we did this with a piece of cardboard by
| cutting /\/\/\ at the top and bottom and inserting a knitting
| needle as the cylinder comb for doing a batch of alternate lines
| at the same time.
|
| It was 40 years ago but clear as day because I really enjoyed it.
| I made a coastal landscape with boats and it was very programmery
| to build up a real image from scan-lines. Making an abstract
| repeating pattern like the examples wouldn't be half as engaging.
| rasengan0 wrote:
| The boom loom boss was a winner of the 2025 Core77 Design Award
| for Toys and Play.
|
| It's like an analog computer of weaving.
|
| If you have any experience with weaving you will understand the
| importance of shed formation. The key innovation is the heddle
| mechanism which affords great efficiency with weft pattern making
| through rotation of a pattern bar allowing the weaver to focus on
| other variables like yarn selection or design sequence. There is
| even a web app pattern picker to plan out designs developed with
| the help of a mathematician [1]
|
| Perhaps other similar ideas might be something like tablet
| weaving [2] or Der Weberknecht [3]
|
| The primary difference is the quick prep and setup time with the
| boom loom and it's near instant to develop modular samplers [4]
|
| If anyone knows of any other hacking mechanical weaving machines
| like the boom loom; please share!
|
| [1] https://www.theboomloom.com/krokbragd-picker
|
| [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tablet_weaving
|
| [3] https://weberknecht.notion.site/Projekt-Weberknecht-
| Project-...
|
| [4] https://www.youtube.com/@janethughes8151
| deskamess wrote:
| Is there a link to US/Canada retailers?
|
| Edit: Never mind. I always find it after asking a question.
| ZeroGravitas wrote:
| Very neat.
|
| It feels like you could make the patterns modular too, a series
| of discs that you line up as needed and then lock in place?
| altairprime wrote:
| You would need (counts on fingers) 0000, 0001, 0011, 0101,
| 0111, 1111 reversible dials for a four-shaft loom disc, I think
| (or 00, 01, 11 half-dials, or 0, 1 quarter-dials).
|
| So it's doable, printing one disc per warp and having a stable
| socketing mechanism. It's going to be bearing the compression
| force of the warp tension into the outer peg or inner shaft of
| each wheel, so your locking mechanism will end up having to
| provide resistance to separation -- lego pegs won't be enough.
| Twist-locks would work in one direction but tend to separate in
| reverse, so you're better off using a hollow center core with
| alignment pegs to stabilize the 4-way 90deg inter-discs and
| then using a rod with a cotter pin holding on a crank wheel at
| both ends (that provides the grip to rotate it against the warp
| tension).
|
| So, for a 40-thread you'd need 240 discs; or 160 plus a handful
| if you conserve on the 0000 and 1111 discs as specialty / edge-
| only. Plus a rod, two cotter pins, and two grab wheels.
|
| Binary wheel storage starts to become a problem. If you
| construct wheels out of 0's and 1's you can store simpler
| parts, though probably at a 25% discount on end quantity (or
| better, depending on how you budget for all 1110/0001 or heavy
| use of 0000/1111 not). Or you can use wheels with dowel sockets
| and put metal pins into them that lock into neighboring discs
| when assembled, which would benefit from having the crank wheel
| be stable to set the tower upon during assembly.
|
| None of this even remotely fits within the level of simplicity
| of production, storage, use that the 40-thread pattern bar
| provides at a $20 price point. You're better off printing your
| own solid pattern bar as they do, if simplicity of use is a
| concern and you have the skills and access to do so; but if you
| distribute that pattern bar model or print, you'll collide with
| their patent, since you haven't materially innovated in the
| above disc-and-lock system ways, so plan for a licensing
| payment to them if you intend to distribute a solid pattern
| bar.
|
| (Thanks to the video game Shapez for teaching me to think about
| 4-tile assembly in terms of rings rather than circles.)
|
| ps. I still want one of these quite a lot.
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(page generated 2026-03-22 23:01 UTC)