I don't disagree with you that Reeves drive cannot work. In my Delta 14" x
40" there were a number of shortcomings compared to commercial lathes with
EVS drives.

1. The Reeves drive is overhung beyond the inner bearing resulting in 4"
c-c bearing locations.
2. The die cast motor pulley slides back and forth on a steel shaft. The
keyway developed slop resulting in poor shifting.
3. Since Reeves drives are normally provided instead of electronic for cost
considerations, there is generally no jackshaft between motor pulley and
shaft pulley to reduce speeds to nice low speeds for large bowls.
4. The spring tension that opens and closes the motor pulley is not
consistent with the shaft pulley movement, resulting in low belt tension at
high speeds.

"JRJohnson" wrote in message Hmmm, no Reeves drive, huh? Well, for the
lathe I built back in 1987-88 I
built a compound Reeves drive (7-1 speed ratio). In the thousands of
hours
that I have run it since, I have replaced the belts once, and a couple of
bearings. If anything goes wrong, I can fix it. Admittedly, the
electronic
variable speed drives are quieter and smoother, but if they go bad, you
are
out of business for a while. Just my 2 cents worth.