I saw several posts from several years ago about what I assume was an
older version of the 15" Sears lathe. The one I have is about a year
old. It worked pretty well until the last month or so when what I was
turning began to stop when I set the hand wheel dial below about 500
rpms. Now if I press with what used to be normal force and use sharp
tools the work slows down at 1000 rpms. I pulled the covers off to see
what I could learn and noticed that although half of the bottom pulley
moved left and right, the moveabvle (?) top pulley with the spring
never moved (I measured it at about 500 and 2000 rpms and the
measurement of the widths was the same. I had assumed the variable
speed belt was worn and had gotten smaller and ordered a new one. When
it came the new one did not look much different than the one on the
lathe so I have not tried to install it yet. When I tried measuring the
two belts I came up with the same measurements. Have any of you seen
anything similar and what did you do to fix the problem? Thanks.