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Serious Reeves drive knowledge needed

Jamie Straw

Jamie Straw

Joined
May 28, 2015
Messages
1,607
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Location
Bainbridge Island, WA
Jet 1236 lathe is operating on 3 lowest speeds only, second time this has happened (the last time, it was stuck on lowest 2 speeds). At that time (last week):
  • The spindle-side sheave that's supposed to move with the speed-change bracket was not moving (motor-mounted pulley seems OK)
  • A 1236-knowledgeable buddy came to rescue, took the pulleys and speed bracket off, we cleaned everything up really well, reassembled and it seemed to change speeds just fine, that sheave was moving right along with the speed bracket. Of note, possibly: the sheave that wasn't operating correctly was pretty hard to get off for cleaning

Today, I noticed I wasn't getting the high speeds again, opened up the hood, the sheave in question is not moving past position 3 -- speeds 4 and 5 not accessible.

If any of you are intimately familiar with this mechanism, and have suggestions, I'd appreciate the help.
 
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I have Harbor Freight's clone of the Jet 1236. Look for corrosion on the square key holding the sheaves on the driven (headstock) shaft. Cleaning it might help. Clean the shaft keyway too.
 
Every lathe with Reeves drive is different enough to result in different kinds of mechanical problems for each lathe. On my Delta lathe the problems was basically a sloppy linkage with lots of dead-band and backlash and as a result things would occasionally get in a bind. The speed lever was connected to a rack and pinion gear and that was connected to a yoke that moved one half of the headstock pulley. To keep the yoke from a applying an asymmetrical force on the pulley, the other side of the yoke was connected to a follower rod in the headstock that supposedly kept things in alignment. Trouble is ... the follower wasn't quite parallel to the spindle and the yoke had so much wiggle that it probably didn't matter what the follower was doing. Anyway things would occasionally get in a bind and there wasn't any adjustment to make it better. Cleaning and lubricating would help. I rebuilt the whole linkage mechanism and the linkage from the handle to the pulley worked like a champ after a few hundred hours of work. But, that only fixed a tiny bit of the overall problem. Unless I was willing to get into the Reeves pulley making business, there wasn't much I could do for that old dog. Right now, it is serving the most useful function that it has ever served ... it is a great place to store junk that has no other place to be stored. It's
A-frame leg set makes it perfect for leaning sheets of plywood against it.
 
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At one time, I owned a Northwood lathe with a Reeves drive. The drive would occasionally hang up at the very slowest, and highest speeds. For me, the solution was to limit the distance the speed change lever could be manipulated, by installing limit stops. Once that was done, the problem was solved.

ko
 
As was mentioned they are all a little different although the principal is the same. Sometimes you can just squirt some penetrating oil into the moving parts and it will free things up once you try adjusting the speeds up and down a bunch a times. That's not the best solution in the long run because it just attracts more dust but can get you by in a pinch and also makes things easier to take apart and clean properly.
 
On machines tools I've owned with Reeves type drives there has usually been a warning label advising to run the drive through it's complete range daily or at least every time the machine is used. And, of course, there's also the advise to only adjust the speed mechanism while the spindle is running.

IMHO, they're a pain. Where ever practical and depending on the machine's value and usefulness to me I've converted to VFD/3 phase or plain step pulley drive.
 
I had the same problem- scrapped the HF lathe and bought a Rikon. Now more problems! 😀
 
As someone said earlier it is not the reeves drive design but cheap instantiations of it.

A decent 1 HP electronic variable speed drive with motor costs about a $1000
Not sure what an equal quality reeves pulleys and motor would cost. More?

the point is a lathe costing under $1500 is not going to have the best if either.

The less expensive electronic variable speed drives all have two deficiencies
1. A high low speed in the 300-500 RPM range
2. A drop off in torque in the slower part of each speed range

Al
 
Reeves drive require regular cleaning and lubricating so the pulleys can readily expand and contract on the motor shaft and main drive.
Most of the issues are caused by fine wood dust getting into the reeves pulleys, regular cleaning and a shot of WD-40 on the shaft and
pulley while increasing and decreasing the speed of the motor will clean out the dust. Make sure you wear eye protection while doing this
as the spinning shaft will throw off excess lubricant and debris. Compressed air is another quick way to clean the wood dust from the interior
of the reeves compartment followed up with a cleaning of the shaft and lubrication. I have 4 lathes and 2 of them have a reeves system, like any
other lathe you need to do routine maintenance on them to keep them running smoothly for many years.
 
Wow, a blast from the past! Thanks for pitching in, Mike. Despite help from a couple of serious machine guys from the club, the 1236 still periodically get sticky. Does not appear to be wood-dust-related. The shaft the spindle pulley runs on gets black gunk on it, I clean it, lube it with CRC Heavy Duty Silicone, and everything is fine for awhile. I've gotten into the habit of running through the entire speed range before I use it for a particular project, but since I'm exclusively using it for bowls now, the lowest 2-3 gears are the ones I actually use, and it will get to where the mobile half of that pulley doesn't move past #1 if I've rouged out a couple of bowls. Eliminated some of the aggravation by installing thumb screws on the cover so it's easier to get in there quickly.
 
Jamie,

Another issue you can run into on a reeves pulley setup is a small "burr" on the shaft or pulley.
This will catch the pulley and keep it from traveling on the shaft, the spring tension sometimes is not
enough to move the pulley over the "burr". On new replacement pulleys you usually need to run a reamer
through the pulley to size it for the shaft. Sometimes you have to assemble & disassemble it several times
before you get the reeves set up correctly on a repair or replacement. That is when you seriously start looking
at a lathe with a VFD drive. 🙂
 
Well, I did get a VFD lathe -- little Nova Comet II. The Jet problems drove me to it, and the Comet is great for spindle work, changing speeds from roughing to finishing and all that! But it won't handle rough bowls very well, hence keeping the Jet. Today, when I couldn't fix the band saw (see other thread), I decided to go ahead and clean up the Jet. The new belt is rough on the edges, I'm suspecting that's where the black stuff is coming from. Won't shift out of 1st gear -- it's looking like it's the pulley on the motor that gets stuck in the open position. Question is, why is the belt wearing so much? This all started when I had the spindle replaced a few months ago. Am thinking something isn't lined up right.
 
There were some really good older lathes with Reeves drives, but the Reeves drives on newer ones like the Jet 1236 and Delta 46-715 were not good designs mainly because the Reeves pulleys were die-cast zinc which is too soft. While the CRC Heavy Duty Silicone is great stuff, it's too thin to last very long in this heavy wearing environment. I would suggest a heavy body thick silicone grease. The black residue is the zinc wearing out and I haven't found a way to slow that down much.

The reason that the belt wears so much is fluttering in the spring loaded pulley which makes the belt vibrate and alternate between being too tight and too loose in the sheave.
 
Bill Boehme said:
There were some really good older lathes with Reeves drives, but the Reeves drives on newer ones like the Jet 1236 and Delta 46-715 were not good designs mainly because the Reeves pulleys were die-cast zinc which is too soft. While the CRC Heavy Duty Silicone is great stuff, it's too thin to last very long in this heavy wearing environment. I would suggest a heavy body thick silicone grease. The black residue is the zinc wearing out and I haven't found a way to slow that down much.

The reason that the belt wears so much is fluttering in the spring loaded pulley which makes the belt vibrate and alternate between being too tight and too loose in the sheave.
Click to expand...

I can vouch for the older Reeves drives. Was working on a stool project on a borrowed Delta 46-700 and clearly the drive had let go. I could turn for about 30 min before the inboard pulley got pushed into the motor housing. Just purchased a Rockwell late 60's 46-525 lathe with a very beefy Reeves drive. It is a whole lot more complicated, but it adjusts very smoothly and has a much broader range of speeds (350-3200 I think).
 
The newer die cast reeves have to be handled with care when they get stuck.
Don't ever try prying on them to break them loose, or you will "BREAK" it loose.
We all pay the price for the "Lowest Common Denominator", die cast saves money but they are a pain to work with.
If you own a lathe with a die cast reeves, you might as well order a spare reeves and keep it on the shelf, you will use it sooner or later.
I have two identical lathes and keep a number of parts on hand to keep them going, I also give each one a break during the day when I am
turning heavy pieces or turning multiples during the day to allow the motors to cool.
 
Scrapped the old lathe and got a Rikon. Maybe mentioned this earlier but too lazy to go back and check.
 
Mike Johnson said:
This will catch the pulley and keep it from traveling on the shaft, the spring tension sometimes is not
enough to move the pulley over the "burr".
Click to expand...
I started taking things off and cleaning them today. Cannot seem to get the spindle-side mobile sheave (correct term?) to come off or move an iota. Yes, I know better than to force it. Tried some WD40 (without getting on the other side where the bearing is), twice. No luck. I have removed the locknut and small hex-head bolt that sets what I call "the yoke" (the part that is follows the rod moved by the speed control), just in case that mattered. Still no luck. Might be because my hands just aren't strong enough. I can see/feel the tiniest little wiggle in the sheave, but no sliding movement. How exciting -- I now own a one-speed, specialized bowl-roughing lathe.🙁
 
Jamie,

The best luck I have had is taking the cover off and spraying WD-40 into the mating surfaces of the reeves and on the shaft.
Use a brush and brush any wood dust from the compartment, or use compressed air to clean the reeves & compartment.
While wearing safety glass turn the lathe on and spray some WD-40 into the reeves mating surfaces and on the shaft while
it is running and rotate the lathe through the low and high speeds. You will end up throwing off excess lubricant while doing
this but you are also removing the debris in the reeves pulley and on the shaft. If you get the pulley to move continue to spray
a shot or two of WD-40 on the shaft and run the lathe through its speed ranges.

If the reeves pulley is really seized you may have to remove the C-clip and and spring from the shaft. This is not an easy job
as the spring on the shaft is putting pressure on the C-clip which holds the assembly together. The difficult part is compressing
the spring to relieve the pressure off of the C-clip so it can be pried off with a miniature screw driver or needle nose pliers.
Make sure your floor is clean, as the C-Clip tends to fly off in any direction and land in the nearest pile of wood shavings.
The best way to do this task is remove the head stock from the lathe and do the repairs on a work table where you have better
access to the reeves pulleys, shafts, springs, c-clips etc. This is a dirty job and you will expand your vocabulary by the time you
get it apart and put back together. You almost need two people to accomplish this project if you are somewhat limited in mechanical
experience/skills, putting the reeves back together is a challenge when dealing with the spring tension and trying to re-seat the C-clip
back onto the shaft. You need three hands to do this task, unless you get creative with figuring out how to compress the spring and
have two hands free to re-seat the C-clip. I use small little zip-ties to compress the spring, they also make spring compression tools
for this task if you know where to find them.
 
Mike Johnson said:
If the reeves pulley is really seized you may have to remove the C-clip and and spring from the shaft. This is not an easy job as the spring on the shaft is putting pressure on the C-clip which holds the assembly together.
Click to expand...

Mike, sounds like you're referring to the pulley on the motor shaft. The one I'm having trouble with is the one on the spindle shaft. I have the outer half off already I call that a sheave, not sure if it's the correct term. The half that won't budge is the on that's supposed to follow the "shifting lever bracket." See picture below, you will notice that there is space between that bracket and the sheave that is supposed to move with it. [In this picture, the speed lever is set at #3, and the bracket has moved properly, but the sheave did not follow it.] No C-clip that I can see either in situ or in the parts diagram. Actually, there is a large one up against the bearing, right where the shaft meets the blue cast lathe body and the bearing, but can't see how that would be involved with taking the sheave off.
Reeves Sheave.jpg

Mike Johnson said:
You need three hands to do this task, unless you get creative with figuring out how to compress the spring and
have two hands free to re-seat the C-clip. I use small little zip-ties to compress the spring, they also make spring compression tools
for this task if you know where to find them.
Click to expand...

No kidding! Thanks so much for the zip-tie idea. It was a real bear to get that motor shaft pulley and C-clip back on yesterday! Was able to do it with only one hand on spring, and one with C-clip, but the left hand still aches today.😛
 
SUCCESS! Got it apart, completely! Cleaned the shaft and the pulley fins, lubed the appropriate parts, reassembled, it shifts speeds OK now. Question that arises is, why is the bearing that is on the pulley side of that "shifting lever bracket" unshielded on the pulley side (it's shielded on the side that faces the lathe body). Oh, well, lesson learned, I will have to look under the hood and clean almost daily if I'm turning bowls on this thing. Doing my lotto-ticket rain dance now, just enough for a new lathe and a better band saw.😀😀 Step one would be buying a ticket, something I almost never do.😕 Thanks to all for your time and suggestions!
 
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