Hi Skinny,
First of all I don't have a Lloyd but looking at it I am guessing internally it is very similar to my "Telessar" loader.
Before you get carried away practice taking the Lloyd tank apart a few times, get used to where everything goes and what it both looks and "feels" like internally. Get used to running your finger along the film path inside the loader with your eyes closed. Now place the assembled film loader inside your dark bag and practice taking it apart and reassembling it a few times in order to get used to doing this. Just as important is creating a method of laying out the parts inside the darkbag in a sensible order so you can find those parts as you require them.
Now inside the Tri-X box there will be a round metal film cannister, it will have some black tape sealing the lid to the container. As you are doing this all inside the film bag I would recommend taking this tape off before placing the canister inside the film bag to avoid it sticking to parts inside the confined bag and causing unseen chaos! Don't worry though, no light will get into the canister as long as you leave the lid on and besides even if it did the spool of film is inside a light tight black plastic bag.
OK so now you have your unassembled film loader and Tri-X film cannister inside the dark bag. Open the canister and take out the spool of Tri-X in its plastic bag. Open the bag and take out the spool of film. Place it in your left hand and with your right hand index finger, rather your finger nail, search for the piece of tape that marks the beginning of the roll. Once you have taken this tape off hold onto the beginning of the film with your right hand fingers. With your left hand, that is holding the spool of film, lower the spool into the open film loader, there should be a spindle/rod of some sort and you want to make sure you push the spool down onto that so that the spool will rotate freely. OK so once its in, still holding the film edge with your right hand fingers use that memory you gained of the "feel" of the film path and run your right hand fingers through the film path while hanging onto the start of the film. Once you have navigated the film edge through the film path and out of the loader, pull out a little extra just to make sure it clears the exit point of the loader, you are ready to reassemble the film loader.
Make sure you don't mis-thread the screw in cover when you reassemble the loader. As long as it it placed on correctly the film will be light proof. OK so once your happy with that take the loader out of the dark bag, trim any excess film coming out of the loader...but not all of it as its handy to have some to grip in order to start loading a cassette... and you are finished.
Only other things I would say are to be careful to not allow the spool to unravel just after you take that tape of...so keep that in mind when you are doing this and to make sure as much as you can that the spool is correctly placed on that spindle/rod inside the loader.
I'm not too sure what you mean by "does the film go over the top Or the bottom" perhaps this is a specific Lloyd Loader question....but if its any help with the open Lloyd film loader in front of you and the crank located on the right hand side the film should be travelling toward the crank or towards the right and the spool should rotate in a clockwise manner. If that makes any sense.
OK well perhaps someone with a Lloyd loader could clear this last question up for you...have fun.
AKALAI
