When I used to warp front to back, I would hand tension my warp. After my first b2f warp, I decided to try using weights instead. When I did, I discovered that my warp tension was more even and weaving was more enjoyable.
Half gallon milk jugs filled with water work well as weights, so my next questions have been concerning how to tie them on and where to place them.
To tie them on, I've settled on the method pictured on the left.
I'm tying a slip knot in the warp bout and using a shoe lace through the knot's loop and the milk jug handle. I first tried to knot the warp itself through the jug handle, but this resulted in too much slippage. I'm sure there's a more conventional way to do this and I'll give it a try just as soon as someone tells me what it is.
Where to place the jugs has required a little more experimenting.
The problem with a set up like this......
...... with the weighted warp hanging over the breast beam, is this......
If the warp winds on over the back beam with the two bouts at such an angle, then a gap is created in the warp on the warp beam. No good.
So I tried this.......
...... in hopes of decreasing that angle by giving some length to the warp. As you can see, I did this by hanging the weights over my bench. But! Notice that the bench wants to tip over as I wind on. It's ever so slight in this photo, but it will go all the way over, believe me. This is also no good.
So, at someone's suggestion (Peg's I think?) I tried running the weighted warp over the top of my castle like this......
.......which worked much better except for one small problem, the placement of my raddle. The warp ends couldn't lie flat in the raddle teeth because of the angle of the warp. I should have secured the raddle to the top of the castle, which is what I shall do next time. This will also take care of another problem I had previously, discussed here. Fortunately the warp wound on without incident and I'm ready for the next step.