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Reeves Drive Question

I have a couple of reeves drives questions.

I am restoring a used lathe that has a Reeves Drive. I replace the belts that were worn and cracked in several places with belts that crossed from Gates. I wanted to go with link belt but the biggest link belt was too narrow to fit the pulley on the motor. The belts were very tight I could tell they were too tight initially so I put some spacers under the motor. That definitely helped. I alligned everything the best I could but there is still some vibration.

I wanted to ask if the pulleys normally get warm/hot when spinning? I went over the pulleys and the shaft and cleaned everything up so there isn't an issue with friction there. It just seems like the pullyes are getting warmer than they should be.

When I go to replace the belt I will probably replace it with link belt and find a pulley that will fit the Link Belt for the motor. Where is a good source for pulleys. I looked at MSC but am not sure they had one that would work.

Thanks.

Reply to
John Gbur
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I'm sort of confused on why a link belt wouldn't fit the pulleys?

Reeves drives have 2 pulleys, and as far as I know, both are variable size, to make the speed change..

I know that they sold me 3/8" link for my Jet 1442 and it was thinner than the Jet belt, but it still fit... Just changed the speed a bit until I got the 1/2" link belt..

I think all reeves drives are going to be a bit warm.. I think that you have more contact area between the belt and pulleys than a standard setup would have, right?

mac

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Reply to
mac davis

John,

I'm confused.

Reading your message, I infer that your lathe has only one adjustable (Reeves) pulley, and that is on the lathe, and the pulley on the motor is fixed. My setup has two, so that as the lathe pulley expands the motor pulley contracts. If you have only one pulley changing, I think you will have some issues with belt tightness as you go from low to high speed.

Observing my rig closely, I realized that the only at midrange does the belt run perpendicular to the motor shaft, otherwise it is slightly canted to one side or another. this could lead to friction on the side of the pulley, and cause the heat you noted.

My belt is in an enclosure, and I never checked whether the pulleys heated up.

Not much help, I fear, just friendly conversation.

Old guy

Reply to
Old Guy

Thanks,

I think this reeves drive is a little different than some though I have not examined the newer ones Closely. This one has two fixed pulleys. One on the lathe shaft, one on the motor and then a reeves variable pulley and two belts. Thanks for the suggestions though it did help. I may due some more tweaking to get the full range of shifting, but I have things working and have been turning with it and all is well. Thanks again for all the advice!

I'm confused.

Reading your message, I infer that your lathe has only one adjustable (Reeves) pulley, and that is on the lathe, and the pulley on the motor is fixed. My setup has two, so that as the lathe pulley expands the motor pulley contracts. If you have only one pulley changing, I think you will have some issues with belt tightness as you go from low to high speed.

Observing my rig closely, I realized that the only at midrange does the belt run perpendicular to the motor shaft, otherwise it is slightly canted to one side or another. this could lead to friction on the side of the pulley, and cause the heat you noted.

My belt is in an enclosure, and I never checked whether the pulleys heated up.

Not much help, I fear, just friendly conversation.

Old guy

Reply to
John Gbur

John You might want to check with the General company. I was helping a friend with a new to him lathe, one of the General 160's with variable speed. It uses a single fixed pulley on the shaft of the motor and a fixed pulley on the lathe spindle. These are connected via belts to a movable pair of pulleys on a jack shaft. For General this is old and established technology. On the other hand, if you have it working, why fix it?

Darrell Feltmate

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Reply to
Darrell Feltmate

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