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delta lathe dis and reassembly

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Feb 15, 2011
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i have a delta lathe, and last night while turning a natrual edged bowl, that had a few good catches, it startet to make a quite , then much louder tink tink tink tink as it was turning. i stopped for the night and came back to find that the sheave on the left hand side while looking in the opening is completely loose and was rubbing. could anyone tell me how to get the lathe apart to check out if theres any damage or if it just needs some tightening? i cant figure out how to get the shaft and sheaves out of the lathe. the motor is fine and the belt is alright, it just the one loose sheave.
thanks
calvin
 
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i got most of it apart, but i cant figure out how to get the sheaves off properly... am i supposed to just bang on them with a hammer? and how do i get the whole spindle out, because i have a bad feeling that that will be necessary.. it appears as though the left hand/ front sheave has broken off of the collar that goes around the spindle, and will probably need to be replaced.
 
Calvin,
It would be helpful if you gave a model number or pictures.
 
i got them out. turns out that the pully on the side near the front of the headstock had completely broken off of the collar that goes on the spindle. im gonna contact delta, as that it is a completely unprovoked breakage on a practically new lathe. its been used about 20-30 times without much stress so im a little ticked that it broke. its $117 for the part. its a delta 46-715 lathe.
 
Since you have now given the lathe model number, I can tell you that what you experienced is not a unique problem. The main reason that this problem occurs is because the yoke mechanism is sloppy on many, if not most, of the 46-715 lathes. This results in a misaligned asymmetrical load being placed on the movable half of the pulley especially when making rapid speed changes with the control lever. The pulley is weak in the area near a bearing where it is likely to crack and separate from its hub.

Disassembling the lathe is very easy, but please do not ever use a hammer to drive the pulley from the spindle. There will be a lot more than the pulley that will need replacing if you hammer it off.

To start the disassembly process, first roll the belt off the pulley. Next, remove the three long socket head screws from the handwheel. Now remove the set screws from the fixed half of the spindle pulley and slide it off the end of the spindle. Note that there is a 4 mm square keystock so the pulley must come straight off the spindle.

In order to remove the variable half of the pulley, the yoke assembly needs to be disconnected from the headstock. Remove the screws on the control lever mounting and slide it free. Remove the remaining pulley half and yoke and bearing. If you need to remove the spindle because of damage, it is retained by internal snap rings to capture the bearings.

I mentioned that the yoke mechanism is sloppy. If you want to improve it, you will need to machine a new follower rod yourself that matches the hole in the headstock casting. The follower also needs to rigidly mate with the yoke -- same thing goes for the drive rod. Alignment of these three parts needs to be precise to prevent binding. Delta tried to avoid the necessity for precision machining by having all the parts fit together loosey-goosey. Unfortunately, the problem with a loosey-goosey fit is the failure that you experienced where the pulley cracked and separated from its hub.

I am very surprised at the price of a new pulley. It used to be around $30 or less. If I were you, I would insist that Delta eat the cost of a replacement since it is a defective design. The concept is good, but their processes and tolerances are completely unacceptable. I had to replace this part at least three times and Delta never charged me for it. Things worked much better after I machined my own yoke assembly, but I finally discarded the whole Reeves drive mechanism on this lathe.
 
I had the earlier model of the 715 and broke 2 pulleys. Delta sent repacements free of charge. Of course that was almost 15 or more years ago. They are or were cast. I had a friend make me one out of steel. It was still working when I sold the lathe.
 
I had the earlier model of the 715 and broke 2 pulleys. Delta sent repacements free of charge. Of course that was almost 15 or more years ago. They are or were cast. I had a friend make me one out of steel. It was still working when I sold the lathe.

It is too bad that they value engineered all of the value out of the lathe. It had the potential to be an outstanding lathe if properly built. Now that Delta is part of Black & Decker, their service has lost the personal touch where they tried to work with the customer.
 
It is too bad that they value engineered all of the value out of the lathe. It had the potential to be an outstanding lathe if properly built. Now that Delta is part of Black & Decker, their service has lost the personal touch where they tried to work with the customer.

Bill,

Its(Delta) been sold again, to a company based in Taiwan. The B.D., Dewalt, Stanley Group still is supposed to do service work. Like anything else though what has no future has no priority.
 
Delta 46-715

I recently went through the process of rebuilding the Reeves drive in this lathe for the same reason. The older models of this lathe have a 24 mm spindle that have weak pulleys, prone to breaking. The newer models have a 22 mm spindle with heavier pulleys. If your lathe is an older model, you will have to purchase the "kit" from Delta that includes a new 22 mm spindle, 2 pulleys, belt and handwheel for $117. There is a noticeable difference in the weight of the new pulleys-hope they hold up!
Tim Carter
 
I recently went through the process of rebuilding the Reeves drive in this lathe for the same reason. The older models of this lathe have a 24 mm spindle that have weak pulleys, prone to breaking. The newer models have a 22 mm spindle with heavier pulleys. If your lathe is an older model, you will have to purchase the "kit" from Delta that includes a new 22 mm spindle, 2 pulleys, belt and handwheel for $117. There is a noticeable difference in the weight of the new pulleys-hope they hold up!
Tim Carter

That is very interesting. I had heard that they made a change in the size of the spindle diameter, but did not hear the reason. It is too late for me because I have scrapped the whole Reeves mechanism in my lathe.
 
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