Necessary to slack v-belt on 9A when not in use?

tobnpr · Dec 15, 2016

I own a 1950, 9A with a 16 speed v-belt cone pulley/countershaft.
When I did a complete teardown/rebuild after purchase last year,the manual mentions slacking the belt when the lathe is not in use.

I've been doing it, but do wonder if that's meant for the much more common leather belt. Automotive v-belts run on our cars and trucks for hours every day for many years with no issues to the belts or the components they're connected to...

What would suffer damage if the belt were kept under tension?

promacjoe · Dec 15, 2016

To my knowledge, leaving a V belt under tension will not cause any damage. Having said that, any belt has a memory. When left under tension for an extended period of time, the belt will assume the shape that it is left in. This can cause a slight vibration at certain speeds. But this would be very very rare. If your using the machine on a regular basis, I would not worry about it. If you want to leave the machine over an extended period of time, For instance over the winter months, If it is not in a difficult location, I would remove it. However if it is in a difficult location, leave it alone.

Stay safe and have fun.

Joe.

iwananew10K · Dec 16, 2016

IMO- it's less about the belt and more about the bearings...

Plain bearings at rest and under tension will tend to lose their oil film and will suffer a bit at the next start up.

I was taught to always take tension off when not in use and before start up give the spindle a whirl by hand to redistribute the oil before tensioning and tuning on the power.

Seemed like good advice to me so I stuck to it.

moonlight machine · Dec 16, 2016

When I got my SB it had a leather belt. The 80+ year old German machinist named Hoffmeister that owned it said to take the tension off the belt to keep it from stretching. That said I put a composite belt on it in 1991 and have never taken the tension off since.

Search

Largest Manufacturing Technology Community on the Web

Search

Necessary to slack v-belt on 9A when not in use?

tobnpr

Hot Rolled

promacjoe

Stainless

iwananew10K

Diamond

moonlight machine

Diamond

Similar threads