The leveling mechanism is kinda silly: a set of four pairs of wooden lifting pegs. The instructions tell you which side to raise depending on where the tooth on the escape wheel stops relative to rocker. I’m using sheets of paper to adjust. Gonna add leveling scenes instead.
They supplied a wax stick, but yeah might try that. The axles are steel pins, so it’s steel-on-wood. But I think much of the friction comes from the gear contacts not the axles.