Reeves Drive belt "?"

[Jeff Horton]

Turning a handle for a chisel. first time on the lathe in a few weeks. Been trying to learn to cut dovetails. Anyway I have a vibration in Ms. Ruby. (older Yates American/J-Line lathe). Lubed the Reeves drive and it didn't improve. Then it revealed itself. BOOM! Broken belt.

It uses (2) 1' wide x 30" flat belt. This was the original belt to my surprise. Found replacements online. Going to order two of them since the other one is probably bad too. Now my question.

Motor belt broke and I can replace it without pulling the spindle. Is it possible to damage a reeves drive with mismatched belts? I don't see how but..... I just want to put off pulling the spindle till I am done with another machine restoration I am working on. Don't need parts mixed up and tools scattered around the lab. Then I can tear this down and replace the other belt and do some PM on it too.

[Randy Meijer]

All of the Reeves drive mechanisms that I have ever seen require a V-belt to function properly. Is there a similar mechanism that will function with flat belts?? Sure would like to see a picture. Thanks.

[Jeff Horton]

OK, I guess this is really a very wide and shallow V belt. I looked at the catalog description and they call it a V belt.

[Don Baer]

Jeff,
A reeves drive was Also known as a PIV (Positive? Infinatly variable Pitch) drive you can change the pitch of pulley on the fly. All of the PIV's that I have seen use two variable pitch pulleys and 1 belt. I would just change the main belt. I don't know what the other belt is unless the other is a fixed ratio pulley that drives the load from the output of the PIV to the head stock or from the drive motor to the PIV. The beuty of a Reeves drive is you get constant Horsepower (High torque at low speed and low torque at high speed which is ideal for a lathe. The draw back is it does require maintance since the belts do wear. I have seen cases where people would not change the speed on there PIV's and the belts would wear a groove into the pulleys and then when you want to change the speed it get stuck a that one speed. Not a pretty sight.

[Henry C. Gernhardt, III]

Okay, I've got the concept of a reeves drive in my head, but I have never actually seen the guts of the system in action. Does anyone happen to know of a site that has information on how it works, the mechanical setup, pictures, etc?

Thanks!

[Jeff Horton]

Here is a photo I found of a very similar drive to mine. There is a wide belt running on each groove. As you raise or lower the drive, the center piece can slide left and right changing the effective pulley size.

drive.JPG

[Frank Fusco]

You will need the right sized belt. If it is a different design you will probably end up with different RPMs but that might not be a problem. I have been advised that the toughest belts anywhere are used on industrial compressors for air conditioners. You might do a search to find a couple. One for use and a spare.

[Don Baer]

I'd look in the yellow pages under bearing houses and have them reccomend a belt. Thats there business.

[Frank Fusco]

I think talking about this jinxed me. My belt just broke.

[Jeff Horton]

Umm, I have found replacement belts. That wasn't the problem/question. I was just wondering if I couldn't get by with a mismatched belt (in case they are not a perfect match) till I had more time to replace both of them.

I am going to try it. I can't see how it would hurt anything. Will order two belts and when I get a few things done will take the time to pull the spindle and replace the belt.

Frank, I asked on another forum and noticed a couple of people had broke belts too. Must a be disturbed quantum singularity in the Vortex?

[Frank Fusco]

The belt on my reeves drive is on a Grizzly lathe, over six years old. The first belt lasted several years, the second about two, the third one and the most recent only a couple months. I e-mailed Grizzly to express dissapointment and stated that I believed the quality of their belts is going downhill. They are sending me a new belt under their one year warranty. They suggested checking for burrs on the pulleys, but they are clean and smooth. The belts just disintegrate. I''l be keeping my receipts and will take the free exchange in future. Will also be looking for a source of industrial air compressor belts, reportedly the toughest anywhere. Free is nice, but breaking in the middle of a project is no fun and changing them is a hassle. The upside is that Grizzly does give excellent customer support.

[Jeff Horton]

I don't know the history of my lathe. I think it was an old school lathe though. Never had been able to get a time line on it either but probably made in the 50's. Anyway, it still had a j-Line brand belt on it. So that suggest it was at least 30 years old. How much use it has seen before I got it is questionable though.