I finally got the bugs worked out of the machine and software and felt confident to do a full threaded run. I was half expecting something to go wrong during the 3.5 hour process, but it just worked.

I was thinking of making a time lapse video of it, but since the thing is rotating swiftly the picture would just be a grey blur. Anyway, here is the video.

And the result is

This does not look as good as it should. The parameters for line calculation need to be changed quite a bit and I accidentally ran the calculation for 200 radial pins instead of the 207 on the actual loom. That's why there are seven pins on the right side that are empty and the face is stretched out noticeably.

But I learned so much from this run that the next one will certainly look better. Here are some things I learned:

• The thread is a lot thicker than I imagined. It shows up dark and the black parts of the picture actually come out opaque and thick. I should adjust the simulation to show darker lines. I could also use thinner thread, like a 50 or 60 instead of this 30.
• I can make the minimum line length longer. 25-30 pins rather than 20 would work.
• Faces that have a thinner dark area around them rather than an all black background would look better and require a lot fewer lines.
• Eyes really need careful attention because if there is no clear white part of the eye it just looks like a dark blob.
• This is indeed a functional and very cool idea.

I'll let you know once I get the next one done. Here are some more pictures.