A friend has just gotten an older Louet W70 from Goodwill. It is in pretty good shape, but the shafts do not move smoothly. The only manual we can find is just basic setup instructions for someone purchasing the loom new. I'm hoping there are people here who can answer some questions for us.
1. There are two horizontal cuts in the harness frame. The lower one has a clear plastic cord filling it (like a spinning wheel drive band) and the upper one doesn't. We think maybe these are removable stops, which you take out in order to remove the whole harness. Sometimes when you press a treadle, the harness goes up high enough that the upper heddle bar slips sideways into the cord-less slot and gets hung up.
2. When the treadles are level, the harnesses hang at different heights. I'm assuming the goal is to have treadles level and harnesses even, and that we might need to adjust the length of cords above or below the harnesses to achieve this.
3. Even when they don't get hung up in that slot, the harnesses do not move smoothly. You have to shove on the treadle to get them to raise, and they don't really come back down without help. Can I lubricate the slots somehow?
Thanks for your advice. We are really eager to get this back into working order.