HF 34706 belt change problems

[gerti]

The Monte memorial hour (I hope they have a truly great shop in the sky) prompted me to go into the shop and have a closer look at replacing the belt on my HF 34706 lathe.

The problem is that the clearance between the head-stock pulley and the cast iron part of the housing is only about 1/4", nowhere near enough to force the belt through without damaging it.

So I tried to disassemble the pulley: I removed the 2 set screws and the ring that appear to secure it, and tried to pull the outward half of the pulley out. It isn't budging. Even tried some taps with a mallet, until I realized that this is probably a great way to wreck the bearings (hope I didn't damage them already).

I tried to use an end of wood as lever between the pulley halvess, but that didn't help either.

Any ideas?

Also when looking through the forum there seem to be different opinions about the belt size, some say 23" and some say 24". The broken belt from my lathe seems to be somewhere in between those measurements. I picked up a 24" belt, but given that my original belt seems shy of 24" and that it probably stretched a bit, I think the 23" belt may have been the better choice.

[WayneJ]

Just a quick thought. You could cut the old belt off and get one of those link belts. They come apart so you could feed the new belt over the pulley and add as much belt as needed to tension properly.They also cut down on vibration. HTH
Wayne

[gerti]

Just a quick thought. You could cut the old belt off and get one of those link belts. They come apart so you could feed the new belt over the pulley and add as much belt as needed to tension properly.They also cut down on vibration. HTH
Wayne

Thanks for the idea. AFAIK a ling belt is not suited for that specific lathe. I have no idea what it is called, but to adjust the speed it uses some mechanics to move the interlocking pulley halves out and in, thus changing the diameter and the speed. I do believe this type of mechanism calls for a smooth belt.

[gerti]

For later reference: I did get the pulley off. It is held in place by a c-ring and two set screws. I managed to get it loose by repeatedly (as 15 minutes worth) wedging a piece of wood between the pulley halves and using the speed adjuster to apply pressure, then repeat rotating the pulley about 90 degree in between. That seemed to move it micrometer by micrometer...

Once I had it off I used some old sandpaper to clean up the inside of the pulley and the axle, and also applied some white lightning bicycle grease onto the axle. That made it go together a lot easier, and hopefully will make it come apart easier next time I have to change the belt.

in my case the 24" belt seems to have been the right choice. I think it would have been hard to get the 23" belt on.

Edit: In a perfect world that probably would have been a job for a pulley puller.

Edit2: That was my 500th post! So now I am called a senior member. Is that supposed to make me feel old? ;-)