Well, got myself in a pickle this time. I answered an ad with some guy
wanting lathe work done, he said it was a couple of groves in pulleys.
Come to find out he wants me to design, engineer, and build a speed
reducer for a Geo Metro engine powered hmmm plane. I'm not sure, but
I'm starting to think that my Atlas lathe won't be able to turn 8"
dia. V groves.

Anyhow, I've been searching the net to the point of getting a
headache. Seems this kind of stuff is hush hush. I assume they run
off a spindle somehow bolted to the block and then an extension is
bolted on to get the prop past the distributor.

The cheapest I can find is $269.38 for the 5 belt 8" pulley and
$123.70 for the 5 belt 3" pulley.

Has anyone done this kind of thing before? The more I think about it
the more I should decline. I'm afraid I might miss something
important, like the vibration between the engine and air turbulence
affecting the triple prop. with aluminum between. Maybe it is just me,
I grew up around aircraft that were build by companies from J-3's to
DC-3's

While searching I see something that looks a lot more safe, an
Airtrike gear box for $2G. The cog ones seem safer than multiple belts
to me cause if ya loose one belt it's gonna take out the distributor
or the coil wire, what's the difference? The other names I have are
J bird and Raven. I see they use cog drives on super chargers, but
nothing 8" dia.

Anybody have any ideas I can help this guy out with? BTW, he's
computer illiterate, I thought I could help at least in that area, but
running into brick walls.

SW wishing he was making his own plane. 31 years since solo.