Thread: A need for inspiration on drive system

I could offer some thoughts but I cannot see clearly in your photos which belts need to be moved for the speed changes. Might be good to post more photos showing details of the setup.

Cheers,
Bill

Hi, here is my suggestion, the arm that the motor sits on we'll call "A", the next one up, idler "B" and the other "C".
Remove the shaft assy from "B", and mount under "C" and the motor mounted under shaft assy "B". Basically all in a straight line. under "C".
To make speed/belt changes easy Idler "B" could be mounted on a pivot assy, and the motor made to hang of a hinge, the weight should be enough tension to make the belt drive. Other wise an over centred cam arrangement, made to tighten the motor mount.
Kryn

Rod Agquip is just round the corner and over the hill although I love the look of the old lathe and I bet it still does all it needs to me thinks time for an upgrade more than just a drive system.

I have a Senecca Falls flatbelt of a similar vintage and that has a pretty simple set-up that the PO fitted.
That doesn't take up a lot of room but has limited adjustment and only three speeds.

SF - old electric motor conversion.jpg



I recently saw these pictures of the same model lathe posted on the Senecca Falls group in Yahoo. It is very neatly done and gives some good ideas of over-centre tensioning and positions the motor on a shaft that is fitted where the pedal set-up was original placed so goes some way to address your space issue.

Star+Lathe.jpgDrive+Setup.jpgCam+adjustable+Belt.jpgOver+center+cam+adjustment.jpg

Thanks Kryn and Ray-s there are some ideas. The machine in the pictures is reminisent to mine but I suppose that in that era everything may have looked similar. I need to have a good tidy up around the lathe and then maybe do a degrease to be able to see what is what.

And Ray wheelin....I have NO intention to side line my dear old thing and replace it with some thing from Asia. I have 1 metre between centres (which I have used a few times) and it still gives me reasonable results (Maybe its the operator more so than the machine. I can't justify the $ on a new lathe

Rod prior buying the ML7 I was offered to buy a similar to what you have although the motor and belts were in the other plane (more vertical). The old lathe was in great condition I thought long and hard about it before deciding for me to get behind (let alone have the room in my tiny workshop) just to change speed and belts wasn't going to happen. I had even considered altering the mounting of motor to total vertical above as if like days gone by where flat belt lathes were run off overhead systems. Still the upper area would have been far out of reach.

I like what Ray-s has done and placed it below as many have done I have seen, again no good for me my feet would end up while I sit on the stool in the belts.

It will be nice one day when Australia once again produces its own machinery............I doubt I'll be around to see that.

Plenty of people here will suggest putting a VFD on it to enable a wide range of speeds with a small drive line foot print. That may be the way to go if you have the funds for it.
Another option to consider if you dont want/like etc the VFD idea, is to incorporate a gearbox into the system. If you could source a small motorbike (or evan a small car) gearbox cheap enough you could make a fairly compact system. I thought about this a fair bit quite a few years ago. (when I had a similar style lathe and VFD's were way out of my price range) I never went through with it though.
Imagine a small bike engine. remove the head barrel, piston crank etc. Machine a dummy shaft to replace the crank with the bike clutch on one and and the other end protruding out the end of the crank case wth a pulley on it. Then mount your elec motor on a plate (with some form of belt adjustment) on top where the barrel and head used to be. Take your output from the gear box to your spindle.
A fair bit of work to make someting like this and you would have to be able to get the bits extremely cheaply to make it worth the effort and also make it cheaper than a VFD.
If it was me now, I'd by buying a VFD.
Best of with it what ever you decide to do.

bollie7

Thanks Bollie, I had thought of a gear box out of a car a while ago and my Mechanic mate warned me that putting a pulley on the out put shaft would need some thought because the forces would put strain on the bearings supporting the shaft. I have a 3Ph motor "in stock" but I think I will pursue the pulleys and belt route because I have them and see if I can rig them up in a vertical manor. The main thing I need to keep in mind is to keep the whole thing simple so changing speeds is convenient and quick. At the moment I tend to just leave it as it is regardless of what I am machining and the diameter of it. (yeh slack/lazy)