Hello all,

I'm in the middle of turning a big maple bowl, and being constantly
irritated with my VS drive. As I'm turning, the speed of my lathe
slowly drops to it's lowest setting, and I have to turn it back up
every couple of minutes or so.

The lathe is over 20 years old, so the drive may need a tune-up, but
the manual Delta sent me is just about useless. Anyone have some tips
or a link to an article about common maintainance on a mechanical
variable speed system? My manual says the speed should lock in, but
there's no locking going on, and they don't mention any possible
adjustments.

Check the pin in the handle that should be doing the locking.

I was just messing around in Google when I saw your post ... I don't
know what this reply will look like in a normal newsreader so I am
pasting enough text to identify the parent. And yeah, I top-posted.

Bill

"Hello all,

I'm in the middle of turning a big maple bowl, and being constantly
irritated with my VS drive. As I'm turning, the speed of my lathe
slowly drops to it's lowest setting, and I have to turn it back up
every couple of minutes or so. "

Prometheus wrote:
Hello all,

I'm in the middle of turning a big maple bowl, and being constantly
irritated with my VS drive. As I'm turning, the speed of my lathe
slowly drops to it's lowest setting, and I have to turn it back up
every couple of minutes or so.

The lathe is over 20 years old, so the drive may need a tune-up, but
the manual Delta sent me is just about useless. Anyone have some tips
or a link to an article about common maintainance on a mechanical
variable speed system? My manual says the speed should lock in, but
there's no locking going on, and they don't mention any possible
adjustments.



The belt may be worn. It did mine wonders to change to a link belt.
There is no adjustments per se, but a little grease to the sliding parts
might be helpful. Remove the belt and check that the spring loaded part
slides easily. DON't bother the fixed side of the pulleys. The pulleys
are soft alloy and can be bent or broken easily.
--
Gerald Ross
Cochran, GA

Whatever temperature a room is, it's
always room temperature.





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I agree, the culprit is probably the over-center lock on the handle. This pulls
on the cable that adjusts the jackshaft position. There is a tension adjustment
somewhere on the handle, perhaps inside, forget where, its been 20 years since I
used one.

"Prometheus" wrote in message
...
Hello all,

I'm in the middle of turning a big maple bowl, and being constantly
irritated with my VS drive. As I'm turning, the speed of my lathe
slowly drops to it's lowest setting, and I have to turn it back up
every couple of minutes or so.

The lathe is over 20 years old, so the drive may need a tune-up, but
the manual Delta sent me is just about useless. Anyone have some tips
or a link to an article about common maintainance on a mechanical
variable speed system? My manual says the speed should lock in, but
there's no locking going on, and they don't mention any possible
adjustments.

On Sun, 07 May 2006 06:26:24 -0400, Gerald Ross
wrote:

Prometheus wrote:
Hello all,

I'm in the middle of turning a big maple bowl, and being constantly
irritated with my VS drive. As I'm turning, the speed of my lathe
slowly drops to it's lowest setting, and I have to turn it back up
every couple of minutes or so.

The lathe is over 20 years old, so the drive may need a tune-up, but
the manual Delta sent me is just about useless. Anyone have some tips
or a link to an article about common maintainance on a mechanical
variable speed system? My manual says the speed should lock in, but
there's no locking going on, and they don't mention any possible
adjustments.



The belt may be worn. It did mine wonders to change to a link belt.
There is no adjustments per se, but a little grease to the sliding parts
might be helpful. Remove the belt and check that the spring loaded part
slides easily. DON't bother the fixed side of the pulleys. The pulleys
are soft alloy and can be bent or broken easily.

I don't think that's it- it has a new set of link belts, less than
4mos. old. I'll try giving it a little grease.

"Check the pin in the handle that should be doing the locking.

I was just messing around in Google when I saw your post ... I don't
know what this reply will look like in a normal newsreader so I am
pasting enough text to identify the parent. And yeah, I top-posted.

Bill"

On Sun, 7 May 2006 09:08:01 -0400, "Dan Bollinger"
wrote:

I agree, the culprit is probably the over-center lock on the handle. This pulls
on the cable that adjusts the jackshaft position. There is a tension adjustment
somewhere on the handle, perhaps inside, forget where, its been 20 years since I
used one.

I'll take a look at this today- maybe I'll get around to tightening up
my banjo a little, too. Thanks for the pointers.

There are 2 screws in the handle that are used to adjust the locking
tension. The manual I have refers to this but gives misleading info as to
their location, which leads me to believe that there are differences in the
models. One screw (on the side) locks the adjusting screw (under the front).

I have found that in order to keep the mechanism from sliding down to the
lowest speed, the locking tension must be so tight that it requires great
pressure to use. So I have devised an extension arm that slips over to
handle to provide more leverage.

Galanw

"Prometheus" wrote in message
...
Hello all,

I'm in the middle of turning a big maple bowl, and being constantly
irritated with my VS drive. As I'm turning, the speed of my lathe
slowly drops to it's lowest setting, and I have to turn it back up
every couple of minutes or so.

The lathe is over 20 years old, so the drive may need a tune-up, but
the manual Delta sent me is just about useless. Anyone have some tips
or a link to an article about common maintainance on a mechanical
variable speed system? My manual says the speed should lock in, but
there's no locking going on, and they don't mention any possible
adjustments.

There are 2 screws in the handle that are used to adjust the locking tension.
The manual I have refers to this but gives misleading info as to their
location, which leads me to believe that there are differences in the models.
One screw (on the side) locks the adjusting screw (under the front).

I have found that in order to keep the mechanism from sliding down to the
lowest speed, the locking tension must be so tight that it requires great
pressure to use. So I have devised an extension arm that slips over to handle
to provide more leverage.

Perhaps there have been changes in different models and years. For the two R/D
12" HD lathes I had the levers were clamped by overcenter. That is you pulled
the lever away from the lathe, then turned the lever to adjust the rpsm, then
pushed the lever back overcenter to lock it in place. Often, students would
attempt a 'gorilla' move and try to turn the lever without unlocking it first.

Dan

That's how mine works too. But the tension in the lever action is adjustable
with setscrews. If the lever pulls out and pushes back easily, then it
inevitably creeps down to slow spleed. Mine has to be tightened until I am
barely able to pull and push the lever in and out. Then the speed adjustment
holds.

"Dan Bollinger" wrote in message
m...
There are 2 screws in the handle that are used to adjust the locking
tension. The manual I have refers to this but gives misleading info as to
their location, which leads me to believe that there are differences in
the models. One screw (on the side) locks the adjusting screw (under the
front).

I have found that in order to keep the mechanism from sliding down to the
lowest speed, the locking tension must be so tight that it requires great
pressure to use. So I have devised an extension arm that slips over to
handle to provide more leverage.

Perhaps there have been changes in different models and years. For the
two R/D 12" HD lathes I had the levers were clamped by overcenter. That is
you pulled the lever away from the lathe, then turned the lever to adjust
the rpsm, then pushed the lever back overcenter to lock it in place.
Often, students would attempt a 'gorilla' move and try to turn the lever
without unlocking it first.

Dan