# Delta 46-715 lathe, reeves drive problem



## shipwright

My Delta 46-715 lathe has started powering out at high speed. My first thought was a sticky shaft in the Reeves drive, but after disassembling it and cleaning and waxing the shaft it seems that there is very little spring pressure. I can deflect the moving side of the sheave from the high speed position by squeezing the belt together with two fingers.
Do the springs weaken and need replacement? Should there be more spring pressure than that?
I don't do a lot of lathe work so I'm not too familiar but I am familiar with the drive because it is very similar to my ShopSmith drive. You couldn't deflect the moving sheave half that easily on the SS, I'm sure.

Thanks for any insights you may have.


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## English

Paul,

I have seen reeve's drives with a weak spring, but what I have seen more often is the fixed sheave moved enough that the spring was not compressed enough to give good tension.


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## Jim Jakosh

I have taken my Craftsman Reeves drive apart many times. Mine has about a 2" diameter spring on it and if you take it apart without compressing it first, it will shoot all the way across the barn. There is a lot of pressure to keep tension on the pulley to force the belt in or out. If you can squeeze them with your finger, I'd say the spring is way too weak. Check with Delta or on the net for troubleshooting on that model to see if that is a common problem or how to check for proper tension and spacing of the sheaves.

cheers, Jim


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## shipwright

John the fixed sheave is fixed, not going anywhere.
Thanks Jim, my SS spring is like that, huge pressure. This one is a little two inch long spring that seems is easily compressed by comparison. A quick look for troubleshooting online was depressingly sparse on the topic.


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## Sigung

Paul, my tactic to fix this would be to get a few springs from the local hardware store of that are the same size as the original but of varying degrees of stiffness. I'd replace the original with the weakest of the new springs and work my way up the stiffness scale until I found one that would work throughout the range. You may also be able to shim the original to increase it's pressure.


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## shipwright

Thanks Jerry,
That was what I sort of planned. I was just checking to see if anyone had specific experience with this.


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## rance

What model Paul?

(edit Nevermind.  It's early here and I had to get up at 4:30. Sorry.

I would suspect the pulley is sticking on the shaft before anything else. But that's just a guess.


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## Ocelot

Paul,

I don't know anything about it. But on ebay, here is a spring. Probably, it's no better than yours.


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## shipwright

*Rance,* yes it must be early  that was the first thing I tried …. Not the problem.

*Paul,* thanks but he's selling a used spring (makes me wonder why) and BTW he is selling it for over five times the new price.


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## Ocelot

Figures.  Like I said, I don't know anything about this. I think the ebay guy is parting out a lathe.


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## shipwright

Problem solved!
Not exactly sure why but when I tried it out today under load it didn't power out any more. All I did was clean and wax. That should help if the problem was sticking but powering out would imply that the sheave was slipping apart due to poor spring pressure. Anyway I don't care how it got fixed, just happy it's back.
If I had a buck for every time I've taken something apart and put it back together, fixing nothing, and had it "fixed" afterword, I could buy something nice.


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## wormil

That's good news. I don't know anything about Reeve's drives but have been reading along since I like lathes. When I get old machines the first thing I like to do is take them apart, clean, and reassemble, it's amazing how much better they run afterward.


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