Shuttle Launch.

I'm pretty fly.

I got these babies at the MDSW under the assumption that they were end-feed shuttles.  They were in positively awful shape. The wood was dry, the metal was rusted, and the bobbins didn't come out. Why was I so eager to snatch up these dilapidated wrecks? Because size matters. End feed shuttles hold three to four times as much yarn as a boat shuttle. Careful application of Sweet Reason (a hammer) popped out the bobbin. Two afternoons with my Dad, sanding and polishing and varnishing fixed the rest. Had I known they were so easy to fix up, I would have gotten a lot more.

Sweat Reason also helped get the bobbins back in.

Through some extensive research (about five minutes on Google) I discovered that these guys aren't actually end-feed-shuttles. They're fly shuttles, meant to work with a type of mechanized loom. From a practical stand point, all that means is that they're heavier then end-feed-shuttles, and if I become Cyber-converted I'll still be able to weave. If the weight is a problem I'll just drill out some extraneous wood and metal (there really is a vast amount of metal in these guys), but I don't foresee that being a problem.

U.S.S. Make Shit Up.

Fly or End-Feed, either way the bobbins don't spin. Instead the yarn feeds straight off them, and through a tensioner device. If you buy your shuttles from a source other then someone who ransacked a closed down mill while hunting ghosts (I might be making some assumptions here), then they probably come with an instruction manual that will tell you how to tension your yarn by following a specific path through the tensioner. Since I learned to weave with shuttles that didn't tension at all I didn't worry too much about this, I just pulled the thread through a sequence of holes that would allow it to come off cleanly. I've woven a few inches and everything is working fine.