a range of between about 15 and 30 is preferred as is a needle stroke length of between about 1 5 and 4 inches those skilled in this art will recognize that there are multiple configurations for the needle motion unit 141 that can move the needle board 144 along an elliptical path one example is that illustrated and described in u s pat no 5 732 453 to dilo et al dilo the disclosure of which is hereby incorporated herein by reference in its entirety dilo describes a needle loom that has sets of eccentrically mounted connecting rods that are also connected to a needle bar at least one connecting rod is mounted vertically and induces vertical motion in the needle bar and at least one connecting rod is mounted horizontally and induces forward and rearward motion in the needle bar the connecting rods are coupled to produce a desired path for the needles other needle loom configurations that may be suitable for the present invention include other eccentrically mounted connecting rod configurations slider crank mechanisms four bar linkages and their mechanical equivalents intermittent magnetically driven mechanisms hydraulically and pneumatically driven systems cam follower type systems and the like the needle loom 140 can be operated on the press felt of fig1 and any of the press felts described hereinabove the loom 140 is particularly suitable for press felts having fine yarns as the discussion.