Reeve's Drive slipping

Check the pin in the handle that should be doing the locking.

I was just messing around in Google when I saw your post ... I don't know what this reply will look like in a normal newsreader so I am pasting enough text to identify the parent. And yeah, I top-posted.

Bill

"Hello all,

I'm in the middle of turning a big maple bowl, and being constantly irritated with my VS drive. As I'm turning, the speed of my lathe slowly drops to it's lowest setting, and I have to turn it back up every couple of minutes or so. "

The belt may be worn. It did mine wonders to change to a link belt. There is no adjustments per se, but a little grease to the sliding parts might be helpful. Remove the belt and check that the spring loaded part slides easily. DON't bother the fixed side of the pulleys. The pulleys are soft alloy and can be bent or broken easily.

I agree, the culprit is probably the over-center lock on the handle. This pulls on the cable that adjusts the jackshaft position. There is a tension adjustment somewhere on the handle, perhaps inside, forget where, its been 20 years since I used one.

I don't think that's it- it has a new set of link belts, less than

4mos. old. I'll try giving it a little grease.

I'll take a look at this today- maybe I'll get around to tightening up my banjo a little, too. Thanks for the pointers.

There are 2 screws in the handle that are used to adjust the locking tension. The manual I have refers to this but gives misleading info as to their location, which leads me to believe that there are differences in the models. One screw (on the side) locks the adjusting screw (under the front).

I have found that in order to keep the mechanism from sliding down to the lowest speed, the locking tension must be so tight that it requires great pressure to use. So I have devised an extension arm that slips over to handle to provide more leverage.

Galanw

Perhaps there have been changes in different models and years. For the two R/D

12" HD lathes I had the levers were clamped by overcenter. That is you pulled the lever away from the lathe, then turned the lever to adjust the rpsm, then pushed the lever back overcenter to lock it in place. Often, students would attempt a 'gorilla' move and try to turn the lever without unlocking it first.

Dan

That's how mine works too. But the tension in the lever action is adjustable with setscrews. If the lever pulls out and pushes back easily, then it inevitably creeps down to slow spleed. Mine has to be tightened until I am barely able to pull and push the lever in and out. Then the speed adjustment holds.