hey, like two months ago i posted messages asking for info about a seneca
falls star lathe i acquired. i'm still working on it. i posted two
pictures to show what i'm up to.

http://www.frontiernet.net/~wwixon/lathe9.jpg
http://www.frontiernet.net/~wwixon/lathe10.jpg

i think i mainly wanted to show the wood spacers i made in hopes of aligning
the pulley shaft of the top step pulley parallel with the spindle (i
imagined you guys, who're used to .0002" tolerances, will roll your eyes
when you see that i'm using wood parts for alignment purposes). i had made
a two sided saddle that i clamped between the step pulleys to hold them the
proper distance apart and i tried to make it as accurately as possible in
hopes that that would be sufficient to hold the top step pulley aligned
properly but when i put on the wood-spacers-rube-goldberg-gizmo i saw that
the end of the top shaft was about 1/8" (at 3 feet) out of alignment. my
fear was that the flat belt was going to drift and not track correctly. (my
biggest fear is *still* that the flat belt is going to "hunt" and require
constant adjustment).

photo "lathe9", rear view. you can see the primer red painted "fork" that i
made to hold the pillow block bearings that hold the 7/8" shaft that holds
the top step pulley. gotta still weld a boss to the back that'll hold a
tightening screw handle. the ladder-ish thing below the red fork is what
i'm working on now. that'll be attached to a 1/4" thick plate that i bolted
between the lathe bed and the legs and on top will be attached to the fork
that holds the top step pulley. it'll have a bracket that'll grip the lathe
back gear bosses, bracket will be bolted in the middle of the "ladder"
(spaces between the rungs are going to be filled w/ 14 ga. sheet metal, as
you can see the top rung is already filled/tacked in place.) oh, and gonna
weld on to the ladder thingy a mount to put a motor.

question, do you guys have a reverse on your lathes? is a reverse more
common than not?

i got a nice 13" vee belt pulley that's going to go on the right hand end of
the 7/8" shaft on the top step pulley that'll go to the motor that's going
to be welded to the ladder thingy.

the first set of wood spacers are to align the step pulley shaft to the
spindle, the second set are to align the step pulley shaft with the pivot
point on the belt tightener fork.

i wanted to/would've rather posted a picture after i was completely finished
but i wanted to show you guys the rube goldberg rig i came up with to align
the step pulley shaft with the spindle and the shaft to the pivot point.
see if i can get any howls of incredulity.

b.w.

Great Yankee Ingenuity on your alignment project.

Reverse is something I use only occasionally on the lathe, but I wouldn't
want to live without it.

Let us see your finished machine.

Karl

According to William Wixon :
hey, like two months ago i posted messages asking for info about a seneca
falls star lathe i acquired. i'm still working on it. i posted two
pictures to show what i'm up to.

http://www.frontiernet.net/~wwixon/lathe9.jpg
http://www.frontiernet.net/~wwixon/lathe10.jpg

i think i mainly wanted to show the wood spacers i made in hopes of aligning
the pulley shaft of the top step pulley parallel with the spindle (i
imagined you guys, who're used to .0002" tolerances, will roll your eyes
when you see that i'm using wood parts for alignment purposes).

Since the overhead flat belt drives were typically mounted to
the rafters of the machine shop, and those were wood, that should
suffice for your purposes.

[ ... ]

question, do you guys have a reverse on your lathes? is a reverse more
common than not?

I have one on most (but not all) of my lathes. The exceptions
are the tiny desktop lathes like the Sherline and the Taig. (Oh yes --
and the Emco-Maier Compact-5/CNC.)

The time when reverse can be a problem is with a threaded
spindle, as this increases the chances of unscrewing the lathe chuck in
the middle of a job -- sometimes at high spindle speeds.

[ ... ]

i wanted to/would've rather posted a picture after i was completely finished
but i wanted to show you guys the rube goldberg rig i came up with to align
the step pulley shaft with the spindle and the shaft to the pivot point.
see if i can get any howls of incredulity.

Not from me. Mostly, you seem to be giving it more care than it
really needs. :-)

Enjoy,
DoN.

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