Full project guide

This semester, four of us at ITP (Inês Lucas, Heewon Cho, Vy Le, Osric Rodriguez) started working with Intertwine Arts on accessible looms. Here's where we are, what worked, and what still needs time.

Why this project exists

Intertwine Arts runs weaving workshops for adults with cognitive and physical disabilities across four or five boroughs of New York. They don't have a fixed location, so most of their equipment travels between senior centers, community centers, and partner organizations with the teaching artists.

Their workhorse loom is the Saori SX60. The Saori CH60 and the rest of the Saori line are no longer manufactured, so replacing or scaling up the fleet isn't an option. Accessories and adaptive add-ons for Saori can only be used with Saori looms, which makes DIY hacks and 3D-printed alternatives the realistic path forward.

The practice itself is process-based, not product-based. Misao Jo created the Saori loom in Japan after recovering from illness, and the point was never perfect fabric. "Mistakes by virtue of who we are" is how it was put to us during training. The framing Intertwine comes back to: the world should be accessible because everyone gets disabled at some point.

The looms Intertwine Arts uses today

Saori SX60 floor loom. Their main loom. Several models are in rotation but SX60 is the primary.
Schacht Cricket table loom. 10" and 15". A rigid heddle loom, simpler than the Saori.
Frame looms. Multiple models for drop-in sessions.
Cardboard and paper-plate looms. DIY, used for intro workshops where portability matters more than output.

Who needs to be involved

Getting this kind of tool into someone's hands takes a lot of people:

Intertwine Arts, the nonprofit that runs the workshops. Danahleah and Danna Lee manage the program and the teaching artists.
Teaching artists. Twelve of them, running fourteen programs in a typical week. They adapt each session to whoever is in the room.
Community partners. YAI (adults with cognitive disabilities), Heartshare, Visions, Lincoln Hill Senior Center.
The Saori lineage. Misao Jo in Japan; Loop of the Loom in NYC continues the practice. Saori is protective of the name, so anything built for non-Saori looms has to stand on its own.
Our team at ITP. We met Danahleah for the first intro meeting in February 2026, visited the Weave In, Weave Out exhibit on March 5, and did a shortened teaching-artist training the day after.
Possible future collaborators. The Andrew Heiskell Braille and Talking Book Library came up early on as a place where adaptive looms could live.

What Intertwine Arts is looking for in a loom

For a new portable 3D-printed loom

Portable. It needs to move between sites across four or five boroughs. If it doesn't fit in a tote bag or roll cleanly, it won't make it to the workshop.
Able to attach and swap in different assistive features. Different participants have different needs. A fixed design that fits one person won't fit the next. Handles, pedals, shuttles, and winders should all be swappable on the same base loom.
Printable replacement parts. When something breaks on-site, a teaching artist shouldn't be stuck waiting for a proprietary spare. Anything that can be re-printed at a local makerspace is a win.
Simple to teach. Workshops are short and the teaching artist is also managing the room. A loom that needs hours of setup before anyone weaves won't work.
Process-first. Participants should be able to make mistakes, re-thread, and experiment. The loom should survive the mistakes.

For the existing Saori SX60

Bigger pedals. The current pedals are small and take force. A larger, lower-force pedal would help participants with limited leg mobility. For wheelchair users, there's already a weight shifter that replaces the pedals and Intertwine has one, but more options are needed.
Warp-winding mechanism is janky. It needs to be held secure as you wind, which currently takes a second person or awkward bracing. This is the biggest barrier for new weavers.
Folding is not very secure. The loom folds for transport but the mechanism isn't solid enough to trust in a bag across the city.
Screws fall off. Having replacement parts readily available, or a spec that can be printed or bought in bulk, would remove a recurring failure.
Swapping the warp is a hassle. The Saori is the only loom in their rotation where you regularly swap the warp rather than re-threading through existing heddles. A small metal-bar adaptive tool helps but isn't enough.
Lots of small fit-and-finish issues. Across the loom there are little mechanical adjustments that would add up. Any fix that makes assembly, folding, or daily use more robust is welcome.

What we've worked on

Printed the "Fall is looming" loom by The Rookie (Printables link). Two shafts, small rigid-heddle-style loom. The creator publishes a full build video and a short working demo.
Installed M4 heat-set inserts so the loom assembles with real screws instead of relying on 3D-printed threads that wear out.
Designed our own accessible handles. Reference designs came from the Makers Making Change writing-aid guide and the Balltop Stylus from Assistive NZ.
Did not do meaningful user testing yet. The loom is built and threaded. Teaching artists haven't tried it with participants. This is the single biggest gap in the project so far.

Hardware and print settings

Not all 3D printers are the same. Treat the numbers below as a starting point, not a recipe.

Printers we used

Bambu Labs A1 at the Tandon makerspace. Much faster. Most of our prints came off this one.
Amy (Flashforge) at the ITP 4th floor. Slower, but you can ask in the lab chat and someone on-site will send the job for you.
The Ability Project printers are Flashforge-based and require their proprietary slicer for .gxc files.

Slicing

Orca-Flashprint5 for the Ability Lab and ITP Flashforge printers.
Bambu Studio for the Bambu A1.
Settings that worked for the loom parts: 20% infill, cubic pattern, 4 wall loops.
Use supports. The pre-cut version on Printables didn't fit due to tolerance (the creator notes this). The version with supports printed cleanly.

Heat-set inserts

Heat-set inserts are small brass threads you melt into a 3D-printed hole with a soldering iron. Once seated, they give you a real metal thread so you can screw and unscrew the part without wearing out the plastic.

Use M4 inserts for M4 screws. The screw size picks the insert size.
Outer diameter varies. M4 inserts come in different outer diameters to fit different hole sizes, and they all still take the same M4 screw. If your hole is tight, use a smaller-OD insert; if the print is loose around the hole, use a larger-OD insert. Ours came in a kit with several variations in one box.
The insert should be slightly larger than the hole so it melts the plastic as it seats.

Best practices for seating inserts:

Soldering iron at 340°C. Wait for full heat before applying pressure.
Light vertical pressure only. Don't twist the iron back and forth.
Flush with the surface. Stop when the insert sits level with the print.
Heat conducts through the insert. Don't hold the iron on longer than needed or the plastic will distort.
Do not try to screw the inserts in. They melt in, they don't thread in.
Assemble the part first if there's an outer casing that needs to go on. If you seat the insert before assembly, you may have to remove the casing or start over.

If you melt an insert into the wrong spot:

No need to reprint. Pull excess PLA out with small pliers.
If pliers don't work, remelt the PLA with the soldering tool and push the insert out from the other side.

Fume safety

PLA fumes aren't toxic but they are melted plastic. Ventilate.
Fume extractors and solder suckers are available on the ITP 4th floor and at the Tandon makerspace.
A mask is a reasonable fallback.

Materials and rough budget

M4 heat-set inserts (Amazon). Around $15. Look for a kit with multiple outer diameters.
M4 screws and bolts kit. Any generic M4 kit works. Around $15.
Nylon thread for the warp (Amazon). Around $10. Polyester sewing thread works as a placeholder if you already have some.
Two rubber bands. Scavenged from the junk shelf.

Approximate total for a full build: around $40-50 in consumables, plus printer time and a soldering iron you can borrow.

What's next

User testing. Bring the built loom to a teaching-artist session and watch someone actually weave on it. This blocks most of the rest of the work.
Saori SX60 fixes. 3D scan the pedals, winding mechanism, and folding hinges, then run a design session in person. Intertwine can loan us a Saori loom once the Weave In, Weave Out exhibit closes.
More capable 3D-printed looms. Fraens Engineering's 8-shaft table loom is a candidate for fabric that's more than plain weave. There's also a fully automatic 3D-printed needle loom driven by an Arduino that's worth studying.
Handle library. A small set of printable handles for different grips and ranges of motion, all attaching to the same base mount.
Documentation. A proper build guide for the loom and the handles, so teaching artists can request new parts from any nearby makerspace.

Glossary

Warp. The vertical threads, tensioned on the loom before weaving starts.
Weft. The horizontal threads woven through the warp.
Shuttle. The tool that carries the weft through the warp. A large tapestry needle works in a pinch.
Heddle. The part of the loom that lifts alternating warp threads so the shuttle can pass under them.
Shaft. A frame that holds heddles. The Saori is a 2-shaft loom. More shafts mean more complex patterns.
Selvage. The finished edge of woven fabric.
Rigid heddle loom. A simple loom with one combined heddle-and-reed. The Schacht Cricket is the most common example.
Heat-set insert. A small brass thread melted into a 3D-printed hole so you can use real screws.
Weight shifter. An assistive attachment that replaces the pedals on a Saori, for participants who use wheelchairs.

References and links

Looms we considered

Build and threading

Accessible handle references

Saori and Intertwine context