"Leo Lichtman" wrote in message
...

"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.

I'm using a link belt, Leo, and have been since last year when my original
belt began to show some rather ominous wear. The idea of replacing the belt
without pulling the pulleys was appealing, and the primary reason I chose to
use a link belt. But you are absolutely correct--it runs more smoothly with
less vibration, not to mention failing to show any significant wear after a
bit more than a year of use. I'm not sure if the link belt enables me to
use a slower speed than the former rubber belt, but it seems to work fine.

One additional point with Reeves drives: if the user remembers to slow the
drive down to the slowest speed detent before shutting the lathe down, the
next startup is far less stressful to the belt, link or otherwise. While I
don't know for sure, I can imagine that this might be true of lathes with
EVS drives as well.

Max