Beautiful wheel!
How is it when there is very little drive band tension? Pretty please, never make the drive band taught. It puts a lot of pressure on the wheel and can cause permanent damage. It also makes it very difficult to use. For most wheels this age range, the tension
should be just
enough to spin the flyer and bobbin. If you press with your finger on the drive band, there is usually an inch of ... it's not really slack, but it will easily move one inch and spring back. I tried to make a picture. But I don't know if it worked, so I've also attached a screenshot from the following video where Richard Ashford talks about basic spinning wheel care and at one point he automatically puts his finger on the drive band to test that it's not too tight.
Warping:
Some warping in the drive wheel is expected and a wheel can have a considerable amount of warping without affecting the use. But when it's throwing the drive band, that's too much. That's very hard to fix without taking it apart - at which time you get decide if you want to restore (use tools, techinques, and materials that keep the vintage/antique value of the wheel) or repair (make it useable and often improve it) and which will give the most joy and value (hint, repairing is more common historically).
However, there may be other reasons why it is throwing the drive band. Much easier to fix reasons! Let's troubleshoot some of these first.
From most frequent to less frequent
- Is the drive band too tight?
- Is the wheel lined up with the flyer/bobbin whorls? (look from the 'back' of the drive wheel towards the flyer and see if it's lined up)
- Is the drive band too thick for the whorls? (it looks it from the photo)
- With the double drive, if it has two drive bands instead of one continuous, are they both the correct tension. It's set up as a doubledrive wheel, and I cannot see from the photo if it has a single groove in the drive wheel or a double.
- Is the axel square (perpendicular to the hub) and straight?
- are the uprights holding the wheel aligned and sturdy?
- is the motherofall aligned?
Also, what's up with the split in the drivewheel? Could we get more photos of this? (see attached below)