What's new
What's new

Potential advantages to flat belt drives in a modern job shop?

Don't forget that flatbelts also allow you to make a cool YouTube channel like that guy with the steam machine shop. Pretty cool man cave to say the least.

Sent from my SM-J737V using Tapatalk
 
Take it from an old Tool and Die maker: A flat belt driven lathe (South Bend) will give you a much smoother cut when cutting a thread or a surface requiring a good finish. That is why you have some high end toolroom lathes where you can cut threads by switching from gear drive to belt drive.
I am not talking about threads like for a gen. use screw etc but threads requiring precise dimensions and a very good surface finish without grinding. We had a Weiler lathe that could be switched to belt drive when threading. In this case it was a V-belt. I still like an old South Bend flat belt driven for threading.
 
Flat belts you can cut and splice to the length you need.
Try to splice a V belt.

They make segmented belts for those. But I guess some folks wear their belts out real fast, but all the hours I ran some V belt driven lathes back in the day and I don't remember ever having to replace a V belt.

I have a "Super Adept" lathe in a display case in the house that uses one of those round green polyurethane belts, you just get the ends of the cut to length belt hot enough to melt and stick the ends together, then trim the flash off with a razor blade.

There are many types of belts, and of belt driven lathes. For two 100+ year old lathes I have awaiting restoration I was told to use automotive serpantine belts with the rubber ribs against the pulley faces, works much better than leather.
 
If its a big one a relatively inexpensively bought flat belt drive lathe can make large, occasional, jobs worthwhile.

A decent condition, modern gear head lathe in large sizes will be pretty expensive and a cheap one worn in enough places to be a right PIA.

If you have space an old, bought'n paid for, machine tucked away at the back can easily earn its keep on one a month or so work whether directly or by adding the capability to do the whole contract where a job includes some big parts. Onsey twosey or repair work on large parts can be hard for customers to arrange. The big shops with modern machines need to charge high to cover depreciation and need to keep the work flowing to keep utilisation up. = expensive and hafta wait your turn. Guy with a big ole lathe at the back of the shop can basically just charge time. Good chance of being able to fit it in quickly too.

The "Joe got me sorted" thing is, up to a point, good for reputation and advertising. Just don't charge too cheap or folk will take you for a soft touch and bring you all the crap. Turning away rubbish jobs without damaging your reputation is an art form.

Clive
 
Don't forget that flatbelts also allow you to make a cool YouTube channel like that guy with the steam machine shop. Pretty cool man cave to say the least.

Sent from my SM-J737V using Tapatalk

Before they moved to Mexico the Hershy's chocolate factory store had flat belt drive ceiling fans. I think there was one motor driving the belt for all the fans. very cool. It was actually very modern.
Bill D

same idea as this
 

Attachments

  • fans.jpeg
    fans.jpeg
    8.7 KB · Views: 65
I was told to use automotive serpantine belts with the rubber ribs against the pulley faces, works much better than leather.[/QUOTE]

I thought they were used flat side to the pulley face? Your method makes more sense because it gives a space for the laces to sit below flush.
The South Bend book how to run a lathe has a section on how to splice and lace a drive belt.
Bill D
 
Before they moved to Mexico the Hershy's chocolate factory store had flat belt drive ceiling fans. I think there was one motor driving the belt for all the fans. very cool. It was actually very modern.
Bill D
Those I've seen use a round belt. I've even got a small chrome idler pulley for one of those systems.


jack vines
 
Depends on what you're repairing. A flat belt machine might get the job done well enough and be cheap to purchase. Can't think of any good technical reasons to go that way and be sure you have proper guards so OSHA doesn't come after you.

I always wonder about shops at the turn of the century where they have line shaft machinery and guys wearing ties operating lathes before the clip on tie was invented.
 
Interesting to note the work dress code of many machinists back then to now.

But how many of the old photos are candid pictures in true to life everyday working gear and how many are posed with the guys smartened up a bit for the camera.

Way back when I carefully dodged involvement in a works photo shoot of the labs we were told to dress up a bit for the occasion. People were posed and selected on appearance not whether or not they knew how to drive the kit they were allegedly using. Amusingly two of the folk who did appear were shopped from their kit, which they obviously did know about, to the other persons which they didn't.

Clive
 
There is a member here, havent seen him post in a while, whose entire shop is overhead belt drive. He is primarily a blacksmith, but he has a lot of machine tools too. Very cool looking, but obviously a lot of work. Parts are kind of impossible to find- you buy whatever you find, whenever.

I used to have a flat belt overhead drive lathe in my shop. It was cheap, and big, and I used it for a few years. Ran it with an electric motor. I used the ancient leather belting that came with the lathe, and every time I used it it would snow 80 year old leather flakes.
I was pretty happy when I sold it and upgrade to a newfangled built in electric motor lathe.

Artisans of Michigan: forging iron with 19th-century tech

He hasnt posted in a couple of years, but here is a post of his with some pictures.
https://www.practicalmachinist.com/...nd-history/boynton-shaper-373081/#post3479963
 
Whenever I think of flat leather belts it reminds me of my first job right out of trade school. There was a company up in Canada that made cigars on a machine called a KDF. It had a 25 hp variable speed motor that ran a flat leather belt about six inches wide. They could not get the motor to come up to speed. After tinkering with it about a week they decided to bite the bullet and call in the factory rep (me who had never even seen one before). I got a quick crash course on how the variable speed drive worked and got on a plane. I was sweating bullets. Got under the machine and noticed it looked like about a quart of oil had leaked on the belt. I got the fixer to clean the oil off, tested the machine and got back on the plane. That was the same job that taught me to cut the ground plug off an oscilloscope. Ground on those drive boards was 380 volts.
 
I think it depends entirely on what you are doing. For even small production runs it may be a disadvantage although it is very common for people to presume that the "latest and greatest" is always the best. This is simply not true but in a world where pool of potential employees is restricted to "only knows CNC" it is accepted as gospel. I don't do many outside jobs so I certainly wouldn't call my shop commercial but the few I have done all involve making a single part for some obsolete, but valuable, automobile. In this case, the flat belts have no significance...the time involved is more figuring out what has to be done when no "commercial" shop would even look at the job. I often spend more time making fixtures to make a single part than making the part itself...

Add to that the fact that the machines were practically free (in a relative sense) so there are no monthly payments and if one stands idle for a month, so what?
 
I always wonder about shops at the turn of the century where they have line shaft machinery and guys wearing ties operating lathes before the clip on tie was invented.

Not just then either. A very good friend owned a successful company making the plates for color printing. The film strippers and cameramen who did this work were very well paid. One summer his son went to work there (he was a school friend of mine). The son insisted on affecting a "man of the people" look - wearing old jeans etc... None of the regular workmen would even speak to him. They all wore ties to work. When he asked his dad what the problem was he replied "the get paid like executives, why shouldn't they dress like them." This was in the 1970s.
 
“ Kearns “ used flat leather belts to drive the spindle frame on their horizontal boring machines right into the late 1960’s. I remember seeing one of their machines equipped with an early NC system that was still being driven by a flat belt.

It was really inconvenient if you needed to work on the vertical ways and you wanted to remove the spindle frame. Lots of owners wouldn’t let you cut the belt because they were expensive to replace.

Regards Tyrone.
 








 
Back
Top