Cleaning up my old lathe

[Mayhem]

The motor sits as low as I could get it to, which was governed somewhat by the length of the v-belts I could buy off of the shelf. The purple spanset was used to hoist the motor into position so I could bolt it in place. The electrical cover was later found and put into place.

   

One of the (many) issues with the previous drive assembly was the inability to lock it into position. Instead, the weight of the motor (and anything else you wanted to hang off it) maintained belt tension.

I decided to make an over centre lock to keep tension on the newly shortened belt. I used a turn-buckle to enable fine adjustment and I am quite happy with the results.

   
   

However, I plan to rework the lock to incorporate a handle to make it easier to change speeds.

Now that everything lines up nicely, it is time to remove the upper cone pulleys and the shaft, so they too can be cleaned.
   

Quick scrub and a lick of paint later
   
   

You will notice in the last two pics that I have relocated the drum switch to the front of the headstock. You may not have noticed earlier that this was originally mounted to the upright for the old drive assembly.

What of the old assembly? I hear you ask... Well it has since been weighed in for scrap