Reeves systgem question.

Chuck Ellis

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Location
Tellico Plains, Tennessee
I'll be calling JET tomorrow morning, but thought I would ask the collective minds here and see what you guys think.
I have a JET 1442 with the Reeves speed control... this past month I discovered that the keeper "E" ring on the end of the shaft closest to the hand wheel has slipped or somehow milled out the slot it was supposed to fit into and allowed a little slop in the stationary pulley for the Reeves unit. Also discovered that the other pulley had a crack in it where it went over the keyway. I called JET and since I'm still under warranty, they sent me a new shaft and new Reeves pulleys. After installing them and checking that I had them right - had the help of a friend who has the same lathe - we put it all back together and it runs fine... except I get a little ticking noise from one of the bearings (which are all new - installed on the new shaft) at lowest speed... if I kick the speed up a notch or two the tick goes away and everything runs quietly.

But I also noticed that at about mid range of speed, the work piece will lug and sounds like a belt slipping. I opened the cover on the pulley housing and sure enough, if you put a load against the work piece, the belt will bow up and becomes slack... I lose power... at the top end of speed, the belt looks almost as if it's just flopping and about to come off the motor pulley which has closed almost all the way, but not quite.... and it looks as if the sides of the belt are being abraded slightly.... I'm thinking the motor pulleys should close almost completely and the belt runs on the points of the "V" and should retain tension....

Any have ideas on what may be happening??:(
 
I had a Sears lathe with a Reeves drive and ran into a similar issue with slipping at top speed. I ended up cleaning and lining the pulley shaft, which allowed the two pulley halves to go all the way together at high speed. I used graphite powder as a lube.

I'll be interested to hear what the Jet folks tell you.


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Don't have any experience of the Jet version but slack flapping belt suggests to me that the motor pulley is not closing smoothly on its shaft. As the motor pulley should always be resisting being forced apart it smacks of it not being able to close up under spring pressure.
The problem at max speed sounds as though the headstock pulley is set too wide apart allowing the belt to bottom out on the shaft.
 
Don't have any experience of the Jet version but slack flapping belt suggests to me that the motor pulley is not closing smoothly on its shaft. As the motor pulley should always be resisting being forced apart it smacks of it not being able to close up under spring pressure.
The problem at max speed sounds as though the headstock pulley is set too wide apart allowing the belt to bottom out on the shaft.

I spoke with the JET tech reps today and gave them the particulars... first thing they said was that my pulley shaft probably needed to be cleaned... the motor pulley looks like could close up a little further, but thinking back to what I saw today cleaning the shaft -- I used q-tips and did as much as I could with WD40 and a little oil -- but also noted that what you said may be true... the headstock pulleys are open pretty wide, so I may be bottoming out on the shaft... I recently changed the shaft and the head stock pulleys because one was cracked... I may have them set too wide.... My friend that lives across town has the same lathe and his is still factory set, so think I'll go over and take a look at his pulleys and see if I have mine adjusted wrong. I work mostly in the 850 and 1100 rpms speeds, so the really high speeds aren't really a problem, but the lugging does get to be a problem.
 
WD40 is not a good idea as a lubricant.

It is basically a Water Displacement fluid for use on Naval Jet Engines and the like to disperse water and form a sticky/waxy barrier to condensation. Although useful at times as a solvent aid.

Motor shaft pulley ends are usually best served with a high temp melting point grease or graphite. On the ones I have had experience with they have a grease point in the centre of the shaft end and a bleed hole in the pulley working path.

For headstock ends I tend to use a Dry PTFE lub. A general spray around the shaft and operating levers, in theory should be kept off the belts but have never experienced a problem from it getting on belt, in fact it usually quietens them down without inducing significant drive slip.

All the above is under the assumption that as much dust and any belt debris has been cleaned out on a reasonable regular basis. (Dust being a particular problem on the cheaper versions with sheet metal covers)
 
WD40 is not a good idea as a lubricant.
It is a lubricant. The inventor of WD-40 told me personally it is a lubricant. It was designed originally for use on high power electric switches in a very humid environment.
I kept the shaft clean on my Reeves drives and used WD-40 on it successfully for six years. Never a problem. WD-40 worked better than other lubes because it did not attract and hold dust and shavings as badly as others. I think it is a very good product with many applications.
 
It is a lubricant. The inventor of WD-40 told me personally it is a lubricant. It was designed originally for use on high power electric switches in a very humid environment.
...

Fair enough, and I know that the manufacturer rates it for a multitude of uses where light loads are concerned but I have seen bearings and shafts damaged by the use of spray can 'lubes', which have washed out the better load bearing alternates that the devices were designed to use.

Don't think they would recommend it in a bronze bearing-ed headstock or car wheel bearing for instance which are admittedly extremes but quoted to illustrate my personal reluctance to advocate it as a general purpose cure for all to lube problems.

Regularly use the product around my garden machinery that's exposed to the elements and shop machine surfaces that may be prone to condensation when not in use but personally prefer other specific products for Lubricating load bearing parts.
 
I cleaned as best I could without taking the motor pulleys off the motor shaft... it has a keeper ring that I don't have the tools to pull and I'm afraid if I do take it off I will bend it or damage it to a point that I can't put it back... I think the shaft is pretty clean under the pulleys.... I did use WD40 to spray and loosen the dirt, dust and rubber residue, then used cotton swabs to reach into the little cracks and wipe out, then oiled with a light weight machine oil.... JET tech said not to use graphite - don't know why as I would have thought that a good lubricant. At any rate, it's working pretty well as of yesterday, except it still has a very loose tension on the belt at the very high end of the speed spectrum.... which I don't use anyway... usually anything I would turn at that speed would be small and on my little 1014.... that one runs near like new, even though it's about 5 years older than the 1442. 'course the big lathe get a lot more work since it's my bowl lathe and a lot of the pieces start out unbalanced... it's been a good work horse for the years I've had it.

BTW, WD-40 is pretty much my go-to for a number of things... it's a great hand cleaner, lubricant, cleaner, label remover, etc.... it's not much for taking CA off the fingers though.
 
None that I can see.... it seems to be working okay as long as I stay off the two top speeds - which I would rarely use anyway - until I can go see my friends set up and check it against my unit.

Thanks for all the advice. It was helpful.
 
just replying to the last post

None that I can see.... it seems to be working okay as long as I stay off the two top speeds - which I would rarely use anyway - until I can go see my friends set up and check it against my unit.

Thanks for all the advice. It was helpful.


I see this thread is about a month old but not ancient so perhaps I can add to it. I have worn a good many hats over the years including working in a machine shop and gunsmithing. Also owned and trained horses, the relevance of that will become clearer later in the post. What I know nothing about other than what I have seen in the picture shows is turning wooden bowls and hollow vessels on a lathe, my current interest.

I'm a new arrival to the site, found my way here searching for information on my 15" Craftsman and Reeves drive. Mine seems to work fine as far as the halves of the pulley moving in and out but I get a lot of slippage. Not sure if that is because the pulley halves aren't closing together properly or if the "new" ten or fifteen year old belts have hardened and aren't biting good. I think a few days ago is the first time this lathe actually cut wood although I turned it on when I bought it second hand seven years or so ago and made sure it went around and around.

Anyway, about WD-40, what follows is a mixture of fact, opinion, and my experiences with it. That WD is for water displacement as an earlier post states and the 40 was because they felt like the formula was at least the 40th they had tried! I find it gums up fairly rapidly and is a horrible lubricant on anything that you aren't constantly relubricating pretty much on a daily basis. I find Kroil to be a superior penetrating oil too. I strongly recommend not getting WD-40 on your skin for any length of time. It is absorbed into your body. It will cure creaky joints in horses or people, proof it penetrates when you don't want it to! The uses I have found it good for are as a cutting fluid when machining some metals and it is excellent to kill some bore solvents used in guns making your metal brushes last much longer. It is also an excellent starting fluid for diesel engines, not as likely to wash down cylinders as ether and not as dangerous.

After seeing first hand that it quietened noisy joints in animal tissue I don't use it nearly as often and clean my hands after using it. Very likely it is a carrier like DMSO and a certain amount of anything else on your hands will be carried through your skin with it. My favorite graphite or spray on type lubricant is Lock-Ease. I buy it in a palm sized squirt bottle. It is colloidal graphite which is just a fancy way of saying graphite in a solvent carrier that dries leaving the graphite behind. Not sure of the safety of this product either but being designed to work in locks it doesn't leave a gummy residue and does leave graphite in places that it would have trouble reaching without the carrier. I find it to be excellent to put in the bore of a rifle both for storage although most of my barrels are stainless, and to lubricate the barrel when shooting. The first shot is closer to the main group and the barrels clean easily. It frees most things that are stuck although I again give Kroil the nod as being better, and surprisingly considering the name, LockEase works pretty good on locks too! Of course it doesn't replace oils and greases where they are needed and there I usually go with overkill getting the best quality I can find.

Hope this was of interest. I'm off to introduce myself in the proper spot and try to sort through the 104 questions I have and decide which really need asking.

Hu
 
Welcome Hu. :wave: I used to have the Sears 15" Reeves drive lathe, and experienced similar issues. A new belt will likely help, but also check to confirm the pulley sheaves on the main spindle can slide all the way together. If memory serves, they should move to the point where they touch. If you remove the belt and they are NOT touching, be sure to keep your fingers out from between them as you try to get them to move. When they do actually slide, they can do so suddenly and with a slam. Fortunately, I had my fingers out of the way when mine did that. ;)



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Thanks a bunch! That is the kind of information that can be right helpful! After reading a bit last night I took the back off and verified that it seems to be moving all the way through the speed ranges but there is a fair chance of a little rust buildup and the pulley not coming together quite as it should. It might be a drive belt problem too. At first I thought the motor was bogging down and was quite disappointed but then I noticed the motor never even changes tone when the piece stops.

As you mentioned elsewhere, I am trying to run before I have learned to walk. While this slippage under load is annoying it has crossed my mind that it is a pretty handy safety feature for me at the moment. I check for play between my drive center and work piece often and keep things snugged up. Hopefully between the two I will be OK. Of course I will write it on a rock that once I move to the inside I am finished outside with a cutting tool.

Thanks Again!
Hu
 
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