Beka Original Rigid Heddle Loom, SG-24"

My item arrived securely in a well packed box, however upon opening I found the heddles wood to be split on one side. I contacted the seller who immediately shipped me out another one at no charge. They were extremely professional in their communication with me and responded quickly.Even though one part was cracked originally, I find this loom to be of excellent quality. It's easy to put together and the size was absolutely perfect. I can't wait to begin to weave!

First off, the shuttle in the photo is not the one that comes with the loom: I went and bought it separately because a 24" shuttle is really excessive on an 8" project.I've only been using this a few hours, but here are my thoughts: First, I've only found one thing I actually dislike, which is that the loom can't be used flat on a table. I'll be building a stand for it to fix that problem.The materials seem to be pretty reasonable, though I'm not sure how the teeth will stand up to long term use. The wood is decent, moderately smoothly finished, and not flawed. Finish could be better, but that's probably where a lot of the savings come from. The 10 dent heddle is a little small for the yarn I have (knitter's size 4... size 2 or 3 would be better), but is working OK.The assembly manual was terrible, but assembly really isn't that difficult: put the sides onto the threaded rod sticking out from the warp and cloth beam, put on a washer, screw the "nut" in place. Screw the pawls on using the included screws on the right side.The crochet hook that is included is a little wide for the holes in the heddle: I filed it down a little on each side (just a little... there's not much structure there!), and it's better, though it worked as it came out of the box.So: would I buy it again if I were starting over? I don't regret the purchase, but probably not. I'd probably go for a 15" Cricket or 16" Ashford, and plan to move up to a larger loom later. But even a 16" Ashford costs half again what this did, and this will absolutely do the job. If you want a loom, and can't afford something better, this will do what you need.

I was very excited about ordering this rigid heddle loom. The price was extremely attractive in comparison to most other rigid heddle looms of this size. But when I received it and assembled it, I found it to be extremely frustrating to use because it required so many additional purchases to set up and operate. There are no rods or sticks connected to the front and back warp bars onto which to tie your yarn. I tried to use the teeth on the bars as illustrated above, but found this particularly irksome due to how crowded everything is. I bought some dowels to use with the warp bars in the fashion of other rigid heddle looms (first additional expense). Because there are no slots in the heddle rest, you have to use the included "heddle blocks" to set your heddle on while warping. These have a tendency to slide all over the place unless clamped. The loom does not come with any clamps to hold it down during warping, much less extra clamps to hold the heddle blocks down as well. You have provide all of those yourself (second additional expense). The loom did not come with any separators to use when winding the yarn and finished fabric onto the warp bars (third additional expense). And, finally, I'd like to state that the little crochet hook they included in lieu of an actual reed hook is perfectly useless. The hook is too small to grab and hold any but the absolute finest of yarns. I ended up fashioning one of my own out of a safety pin. At least I didn't have to spend anything extra to solve that issue.My entire experience with this loom has been frustrating and disappointing. I have truly learned my lesson. You get what you pay for. I am certainly never taking a chance again on a major purchase that has no reviews, even if it does cost half as much as the competition. I'm going to save up my pennies and get a Kromski or an Ashford next time. Never again will I buy a Beka product.

The loom is very nice. Shipping was fast. However, the assembly instructions were terrible. I searched and found and out of print instruction pamphlet for the rl series. Appears to be the same loom, only it came with a stand then, Now it does not. This older pamphlet explained how to use the tension system and a few other things in more detail. I can't post the link here, but it was under Beka rl loom search.

Love this loom, so far. I need to use it more before I add to this review.I had an issue with one of the knobs, called the company, and they IMMEDIATELY fixed the problem.

Put it together fine having trouble with the instructions on using it and warping it!

The loom must be held against a table or counter top. There are no stops for the heddle. Also no neutral postion for using pick-up stick. The pickup stick is rough and doesn't slide inot the threads smoothly. The threading is ok, but requires paper in both front and back. I wish I had bought a different loom.