I have a Sheldon WM56P 13x36 Variable Speed Lathe. I noticed when I
was cutting some extremely tough cast iron in back gear at 240rpm that
after about 10 minutes the sheave where the dual belts connect to the
spindle got extremely hot, to hot touch touch and leave your hand on
it. The belts were not slipping, so this is not the culprit.

The dual pulley sheave is one piece and has 2 steel cored V-Belts that
run in it. It is not keyed to the spindle and I can hold the sheave
and rotate the spindle by hand with no problems so I do not think it
is galled. The sheave has an oil hole and it was properly lubricated.
I then cleaned out the oil galleys for the tapered roller bearings and
cleaned the cups well and flushed out all of the old oil. I then
refilled the galleys and oil cups with Velocite 10 which is what the
manual calls for.

I then ran the lathe in direct drive which is accomplished by pinning
the pulley sheave and the bull gear together via a pin and ran it for
20 minutes at about 1250rpm with no load and no chuck. Again the
pulley sheave was the hottest part of the spindle although the bull
gear was warm as was the headstock. I measured the temp of the sheave
and it was 120 degrees. The bull gear was 100 degrees. The sheave
again was too hot to put my hand on.

The bearings are adjusted correctly and I even slacked them off a
little before running it for 20 minutes just to see if it would help.
I checked all of the other clearances and everything is OK. I
contacted a gentleman that worked for Sheldon and he is at a loss. I
too am at a loss and cannot figure out what is causing this heat
problem. If it were the bearings it would be from the outside in and
not the inside out that I am experiencing. The spindle nose was a
little warm and if it were the bearings I would expect it to be
extremely hot as this is one of the thinnest parts of the spindle. Is
it possible for a steel cored V-Belt to transfer this kind of heat say
possibly from the jackshaft??? I have not checked the heat in the
cabinet yet but I just didn't think that would transfer that kind of
heat.

Any suggestions will be greatly appreciated. Thanks, Steve

On 7 Jul 2004 17:32:13 -0700, (Steve) wrote:

I have a Sheldon WM56P 13x36 Variable Speed Lathe. I noticed when I
was cutting some extremely tough cast iron in back gear at 240rpm that
after about 10 minutes the sheave where the dual belts connect to the
spindle got extremely hot, to hot touch touch and leave your hand on
it. The belts were not slipping, so this is not the culprit.

The dual pulley sheave is one piece and has 2 steel cored V-Belts that
run in it. It is not keyed to the spindle and I can hold the sheave
and rotate the spindle by hand with no problems so I do not think it
is galled. The sheave has an oil hole and it was properly lubricated.
I then cleaned out the oil galleys for the tapered roller bearings and
cleaned the cups well and flushed out all of the old oil. I then
refilled the galleys and oil cups with Velocite 10 which is what the
manual calls for.

I then ran the lathe in direct drive which is accomplished by pinning
the pulley sheave and the bull gear together via a pin and ran it for
20 minutes at about 1250rpm with no load and no chuck. Again the
pulley sheave was the hottest part of the spindle although the bull
gear was warm as was the headstock. I measured the temp of the sheave
and it was 120 degrees. The bull gear was 100 degrees. The sheave
again was too hot to put my hand on.

The bearings are adjusted correctly and I even slacked them off a
little before running it for 20 minutes just to see if it would help.
I checked all of the other clearances and everything is OK. I
contacted a gentleman that worked for Sheldon and he is at a loss. I
too am at a loss and cannot figure out what is causing this heat
problem. If it were the bearings it would be from the outside in and
not the inside out that I am experiencing. The spindle nose was a
little warm and if it were the bearings I would expect it to be
extremely hot as this is one of the thinnest parts of the spindle. Is
it possible for a steel cored V-Belt to transfer this kind of heat say
possibly from the jackshaft??? I have not checked the heat in the
cabinet yet but I just didn't think that would transfer that kind of
heat.

Any suggestions will be greatly appreciated. Thanks, Steve

My guess would be that it's a belt-related problem, seeing as how you
get some heating in direct drive, as well as in back gear.

I have two Sheldons, one of which has a belt drive similar to what you
describe. I've not noticed any heating, however, i run twist link
vee-belts.

The back gears on one of mine had been run with insufficient or no
lube, so the spindle was galled, as was the bore of the gears. I had
to bore and sleeve the gears and grind the spindle. So, it is
possible to have back gear problems with Sheldons.

Orrin

On Thu, 08 Jul 2004 15:51:01 -0700, Orrin Iseminger wrote:

On 7 Jul 2004 17:32:13 -0700, (Steve) wrote:

I have a Sheldon WM56P 13x36 Variable Speed Lathe. I noticed when I
was cutting some extremely tough cast iron in back gear at 240rpm that
after about 10 minutes the sheave where the dual belts connect to the
spindle got extremely hot, to hot touch touch and leave your hand on
it. The belts were not slipping, so this is not the culprit.

The dual pulley sheave is one piece and has 2 steel cored V-Belts that
run in it. It is not keyed to the spindle and I can hold the sheave
and rotate the spindle by hand with no problems so I do not think it
is galled. The sheave has an oil hole and it was properly lubricated.
I then cleaned out the oil galleys for the tapered roller bearings and
cleaned the cups well and flushed out all of the old oil. I then
refilled the galleys and oil cups with Velocite 10 which is what the
manual calls for.

I then ran the lathe in direct drive which is accomplished by pinning
the pulley sheave and the bull gear together via a pin and ran it for
20 minutes at about 1250rpm with no load and no chuck. Again the
pulley sheave was the hottest part of the spindle although the bull
gear was warm as was the headstock. I measured the temp of the sheave
and it was 120 degrees. The bull gear was 100 degrees. The sheave
again was too hot to put my hand on.

The bearings are adjusted correctly and I even slacked them off a
little before running it for 20 minutes just to see if it would help.
I checked all of the other clearances and everything is OK. I
contacted a gentleman that worked for Sheldon and he is at a loss. I
too am at a loss and cannot figure out what is causing this heat
problem. If it were the bearings it would be from the outside in and
not the inside out that I am experiencing. The spindle nose was a
little warm and if it were the bearings I would expect it to be
extremely hot as this is one of the thinnest parts of the spindle. Is
it possible for a steel cored V-Belt to transfer this kind of heat say
possibly from the jackshaft??? I have not checked the heat in the
cabinet yet but I just didn't think that would transfer that kind of
heat.

Any suggestions will be greatly appreciated. Thanks, Steve

My guess would be that it's a belt-related problem, seeing as how you
get some heating in direct drive, as well as in back gear.

I have two Sheldons, one of which has a belt drive similar to what you
describe. I've not noticed any heating, however, i run twist link
vee-belts.

The back gears on one of mine had been run with insufficient or no
lube, so the spindle was galled, as was the bore of the gears. I had
to bore and sleeve the gears and grind the spindle. So, it is
possible to have back gear problems with Sheldons.

If the belt tension was insufficient and slippage was occuring it could
explain this.

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