Latheless and penless

[Bobostro61]

I am not happy at all. The belt on my lathe is shot. It only lasted two months and disintegrated. Replacement belts for my Excelsior lathe won't be available until APRIL! CAN YOU BELIEVE IT??? This must be an inherent problem with the Excelsior lathes if they don't have enough belts to keep up with demand. Is everyone that has one of these lathes having belt issues I wonder? So here I sit... Latheless and Penless...

 

[jimm1]

What about an Auto Parts store? They have all sizes of belts. I got my mini lathe belt at one and paid half the price the local Woodworking store was selling them for.

 

[robutacion]

I am not happy at all. The belt on my lathe is shot. It only lasted two months and disintegrated. Replacement belts for my Excelsior lathe won't be available until APRIL! CAN YOU BELIEVE IT??? This must be an inherent problem with the Excelsior lathes if they don't have enough belts to keep up with demand. Is everyone that has one of these lathes having belt issues I wonder? So here I sit... Latheless and Penless...

Well mate, I don't know anything about that lathe you've got but, the first thing I would consider would be to buy a quality belt from someone else that specializes in belts. If those lathes are known to have belt problems, is the problem the lathe pulleys or the quality of the belts the manufacturer is using...? just thing of it...!

In warranty or not, a belt even a quality one is not that expensive and certainly not worth thinking that you can use the lathe until April.

Shake that though out of your head, just not worth it, and don't rely on the belt that you will get from the people that sold you the lathe, if the belts are rubbish, that will be exactly what you will receive from them.

There are hundreds of places that sell any type/shape and size belt you can think of, contact one of them with the information to what the belt is and what it does (groves, etc), you will have the lathe going in no time...!

Good luck, lets get back to word, do we...???

Cheers
George

 

[Boz]

You could always buy an inexpensive back up lathe that has the same tapers and is interchangeable with your current tools. Then when the belts come back in stock you can dedicate the back up unit to drilling or buffing.
Before you condemn the lathe as being a problem consider that most if not all companies do not keep stock on the floor in todays economy. Their planning is based on past performance and if they have a run on a certain product the lead times to get more can be quite long as most production is on the other side of the world.
Maybe a kindly member here will have a back-up that he can part with to get you back up and running.

 

[ctubbs]

We maintain many belt drive devices in the plants and anytime we start having belt problems there is almost always either an alignment or tension problem. If we have a belt go bad in 2 months we use a very highly sophisticated tool to verify alignment, a string. Pull a string from pulley to pulley along the side of the pulleys and it must be straight. If not then one or the other pulley must be adjusted. When you get your new belt, be sure to check the tension on the belt where it will not be slipping under load. By the way, it can be too tight. That is just as bad as too loose. Over tight can destroy the bearings in the head and motor.

If you have a small lathe that can be easily carried into the store, take it with you when you visit the belt shop.
Charles

 

[Displaced Canadian]

I have had that lathe for 4 years now and have yet to change a belt. Once I did have to realign the pulleys so the belt was running straight.

 

[frank123]

Belts are almost never unique to one machine.

Figure out what kind of belt you have, the nomenclature that specifies it- and order from someone else.

Industrial supply houses usually carry almost all of them, try Grainger or one of the ones available online.

 

[PWL]

Check out "belts for anything".One word on google.
Paul

 

[Fibonacci]

If you chewed it up that fast, your pulleys were probably out of alignment. I had that problem on mine when I got it as well. Less than a minute with an allen wrench and it was much quieter as well.

 

[nava1uni]

Check out Rockler, Woodcraft and parts stores. Take the old belt with you and then tune up your lathe so that everything is in alignment.

 

[hilltopper46]

If you have a Motion Industries outlet in your area they can likely match the old belt. Another possible resource is FastenAll, but given the choice Motion Industries will be more economical.

 

[randyrls]

Bob; These lathes are sold under many brand names. HF has them as 65345 And the manual is better than the one on the Rockler site that looks like it was photo copied into a PDF format.

The specs on the belt listed on HF are "3-Groove, 0.275" x 2'1" Circumference" , so you should be able to get one locally or online. Maybe HF will have one?

Before replacing the belt, make sure you check and set the pulley alignment.

Take the old belt with you when you go to any local supplier. As other have said, these are not specific to your lathe and I suspect there are several places locally where you could get a decent quality belt.

 

[Bobostro61]

Stopped at Harbor Freight today and they didn't carry the belts at the store. I have to call and order them. I did get a belt at Pep Boys believe it or not. Its just a hair wider than it should be but it seems to work just fine. 3PK635 is the size. I made a pen on it this morning running at 750 rpm and 3200 and it worked fine. For $9.99 it will due until the replacements come in. Thanks for all of your suggestions!

 

[TellicoTurning]

Check out "belts for anything".One word on google.
Paul

+1 for the Belt Store, Lafayette, LA... if you have the original belt numbers and sizes, they will be able to match it .... I get all of my belts for my lathes from them at about 1/3 the cost from the mfgr...

You'll need to call them, they don't have on-line sales on their site, but the lady who answers the phone is very knowledgeable and great to work with.