"Maxprop" wrote: (clip) Not sure which lathe you have, but my Jet 1442 will
actually run a bit
slower than the last detent for the speed control (for the Reeves drive)
allows. I simply retract the pin and set the lathe a bit below that
detent. I checked the speed with an optical tach and found it runs at
roughly 280 rpm--much better than the 400 the bottom detent allows. This
of course begs the question as to whether this is hard on the Reeves
drive, or if it is an acceptable practice. No one at the Jet distribution
center had the slightest idea. But it works, and I'll probably continue
to use this method until I either damage the drive or learn from an
authority that it's deleterious. (clip)
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
I did something similar with my Jet 1236. I actually drilled an extra hole
so I could pull the lever down and lock it. I don't think it can do any
harm to run it that way. If anything is going to suffer, it will be the
belt, from running way up on the edges of the driven pulley. Belts are easy
to replace. When you do replace a belt, eventually, I recommend the linked
belts. They run with less vibration, and the length can be adjusted in 1/2"
increments, which may allow you to further reduce the speed. See whether
the belt bottoms on the motor pulley before it reaches the largest diameter
on the spindle pulley. If it does, you can further lower the minimum RPM by
adding length to the belt.

If you keep a short length of link belting on hand, you can repair a broken
belt without replacing the whole thing. Usually, a broken belt results from
a stall, which causes the motor pulley to spin on one spot, burning the
belt. So repairing by replacing a few links makes sense.