Problems Left Side of the Beams on an Old Louet Spring

Question: Hi, my cloth beam and warp beam have both grown very tight over the past few months – they only turn if I physically turn them with my hands, and even that is hard to do. Warp tension and letting off the brake is not enough. It was fine a few months ago. Looking at just the cloth beam, only the left, the side without the ratchet/break is tight. I took off the cloth beam and can’t find anything wrong with it. The humidity level is drier now, but I can’t think of any other changes. Help, please?

Jan Louet in The Netherlands came up with an answer to this problem:

“This is from the time that we made a circular groove in the wood for the beams. Now it is a blind hole. If the wood shrinks, because of low humidity, it shrinks in one direction, so the groove becomes oval. Mostly the problem is at the inside of the beam; maybe there is some burr and there is a weld joint, that can be removed with a metal file. If that is not enough, you have to use sandpaper in the groove in the wood, where the oval circle is smallest; that is at the top and bottom. Met vriendelijke groet, Jan Louët.”