making maple plywood from veneer, using plastic resin glue...blanks to turn step pulleys

I want to turn a few (typical drill-press sized) v-belt step pulleys*, and want to make the plywood it's turned from. I'm considering using 'garden variety' maple veneer and plastic resin glue, but I'm wide "open for better ideas" and especially for ideas on where I might obtain such material (already made) at very low cost? are wooden airplane propellers made this way? I was gonna glue it up with every 2nd layer rotated 90 degrees...

*um, and yeah, I still gotta figure out the "how to make sure it fits the shaft -very- well and is keyed TO it" part...but we can cross that bridge later, or -now-, if you've got a idea on that too :-)

thanks very much, guys,

toolie

Reply to
dave
Loading thread data ...

Baltic birch is probably the way to go. Comes in 5' x5' sheets in various thickness up to 1" and is available pretty much all over.

Yes and no. I've seen laminated and solid propellors and have carved small ones myself when I did "oily toys" as a kid. The full size ones are a work of art!

Now you got me thinking! I have been looking for replacement 4 step pulleys for my old Delta and hadn't thought about turning them. But I am not too sure plywood would be up to the job.

Does anyone have a source for 4 step pulleys to fit 7/8" shaft?

Reply to
Canchippy

Hi C etc.

High quality cast iron 4 step pulley, made by Maska 5,4,3,2" OD and 7/8 bore $47.10 Or you can get zinc cast lot of places have them they go for around $15.-- Try Ebay or some place like MSC or McMaster

formatting link
Have fun and take care Leo Van Der Loo

Canchippy wrote:

Reply to
l.vanderloo

Leo thanks. Do you have a link to this? The Maska site quotes $67.30

Have done all the above and came up empty several times. Also tried all the local (Canada) industrial supply/tool/hardware outlets with no luck.

Reply to
Canchippy

Hi C I'll hold your hand here ok

formatting link
Page 973 > snipped-for-privacy@rogers.com wrote:

Reply to
l.vanderloo

formatting link
> > Page 973 in the big book at McMaster >
formatting link
> >
formatting link
> > It's a start there are many more sources. >

Thanks for the hand Leo but I'm afraid it didn't help much. I am trying to match the steps on the headstock pulley and they have O.D. of 2.5, 3.25, 3.75, and 4.5 inches. The closest is the Aluminum die cast one on McMaster but it is only a 3/4" bore, I need 7/8" so it would have to be machined to fit always assuming there is enough meat around the boss to allow it. Or maybe get the motor shaft reduced to

3/4". But thanks for all your help and I will keep looking. Something will show sooner or later. Peter
Reply to
Canchippy

Dave, Many marine fittings, including blocks & shives were made of a resin impregnated fiber. It may not be feasible and I don't remember the trade name, machinability, cost or availability of bars of it. Maybe someone will chime in pro or con? FWIW, I have an old lathe with a solid wood pulley with 'V' grooves. I think it was pinned on the shaft.

Peter, I imagine that you have already checked with Delta re OEM pulleys and found them either too expensive or not available. I think there are several other suppliers of older Rockwell-Delta parts. If you can't find a match, perhaps you could replace both pulleys. They all seem pricey to me, but you might check out the machining forums on the net (there is a Delta group) and the hobby machinist magazines. HTDH (hope this doesn't hurt) :)

Turn to Safety, Arch Fortiter

formatting link

Reply to
Arch

Why not turn a solid hardwood step pulley. I made my own lathe from wood with Grizzly replacement part spindles. I couldn't get a pulley with the correct bore.Machine shops wanted more to bore a pulley than the pulley would cost. I bored four maple blocks 26 mm,thats the shaft size.Then glued them up on the shaft.Several times in the course of an hour I turned the blocks a little so any glue would not glue the blocks to the shaft. The following day I turned the blocks down to a cone pulley. The V belt that eventually goes on the pulley was just placed over the shaft.This worked good enough to turn one of the steps round.Then I cut the V, installed the belt on this step and finished off the entire pulley. I have about 800 to 1000 hours on this setup with no problems. I bored a hole thru the smallest step and tapped the wood for 12x24 machine screw that fits in the keyway slot, I did not use the keyway itself, just the machine screw.

mike

Reply to
kwoodhands

Yes I did Arch. Trouble is the lathe has been fitted with a 3 Phase 1HP Baldor motor and converted to 1 phase variable speed so it's the 7/8" shaft on the motor that is causing the problem. My intent was to match the headstock pulley so as to be able to change ratios to make use of the torque available with the lower speeds. Hey new toy and I want it to do everything! :-) I find I can stop the motor if I have the belt on a high ratio and the VS set to slow speed. So I figured let the motor rev higher, lower the gear and I should be OK. Does that make sense? I also noticed I have a bent shieve on the smallest step of the headstock pulley so I was looking to replace both pulleys. Now I think I will refine my turning technique and work around the problem :-)

Reply to
Canchippy

Well I would be worried about it going out of round with changes in humidity. Even the die cast white metal ones tend to distort with heat and usage. I solved a lot of noise/vibration problems by replacing die cast with machined cast iron pulleys on all of my machinery. Unfortunately the headstock pulley on my old Delta is a unique 1 off so it will have to be a custom made replacement. But I'm curious, is your shop climate controlled?

Reply to
Canchippy

+++++++++++++ Round up some mesquite to turn your pulley from. It's denser than oak and dimensional stability is the best of any hardwood I know of (less than 1%, green to dry in both directions. I would trust a pulley made from mesquite before a similar size in cast aluminum. YMMV

Ken Moon Webberville, TX

Reply to
Ken Moon

InspirePoint website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.