Loose warp

I spent a couple of hours this morning researching the loom problem. I think I have figured out exactly what is going on and a potential work-around. When the shed is open (the shed is where the weft goes through the warp, it is opened by pressing one of the treadles) the threads on top are the correct tension but the threads on the bottom are loose. Doesn't matter which treadle is pressed.

The warp is supposed to be level from the breast beam to the back beam but it is not, it goes up from the breast beam to the heddle eyes and then back down again to the back beam. When I try to make it level by raising or lowering the shaft frames holding the heddles it no longer passes through the middle of the reed, which it is also supposed to do. What I have to do is somehow get the warp to be level and also passing through the middle of the reed. I can't adjust the reed height and adjusting the frame height creates other problems. However, if the back beam were higher it could work. I think I can do that by adjusting the metal rods that hold it in place, but that adjustment interferes with the free movement of the beater holding the reed.

A Leclerc counterbalance loom

So looking closely at pictures of an equivalent Leclerc loom, I can see that they put the metal rods on the inside of the vertical loom posts and on my loom they are on the outside. Inside the loom posts they wouldn't affect the beater. I think if I just drill through the existing bolt holes to the other side of the vertical posts of the castle and back beam and move the bolts from the outside to the inside, that would do it. My only hesitation in doing that is that it would shorten the distance between the frames and the back beam and I don't know if there is a downside to doing that. I'm just thinking out loud here, have to ask my old instructor.

A Leclerc jack loom, with the metal bars on the outside

Apparently my warp problem is fairly common on jack looms but none of the suggested solutions work on a counterbalance loom. Jack looms are more common in North America because they are cheaper to buy, by approximately a thousand bucks. I like the look of a jack frame loom but it comes with issues. My loom is a counterbalance loom which is considered a better type, but my loom is not a good example of the type.

I got an email from the instructor, she said it had not occurred to her to use those metal bars in the way I was proposing. She thought they were just for folding up the back beam but on looking more closely at them the extra slot in the middle just hadn't registered with her. So she suggested that it couldn't hurt to try it out, I could always go back to the way it was before.