Good day, Everyone,
I have a question regarding my Chester Craftsman belt driven lathe as described below :
There is a 3 step pully mounted on the main spindle ,driven by a belt from a rear mounted shaft. This pully can be engaged by means of a spring loaded pin in order to provide direct drive speeds .The gearwheel seems to be keyed to the spindle, nothing wrong there.
What I do not understand is that when backgear is to be engaged, the spring pin is disengaged and another smaller gearwheel, to the lefthand end of the spindle is engaged to provide low gears. This also, I can understand, but since the 3 step pully does not appear to be keyed to the spindle, but can rotate freely, how is the drive transmitted ?
I suspect that the pully should be keyed or has become broken or missing.
At the moment it seems to be more of a friction drive, which cannot be right.
I am not looking forward to stripping down the whole spindle to find out !
Does anyone know, should it be keyed to the spindle ?
Sorry if this sounds like a stupid question, but it has me puzzled.
Any advice much appreciated.
PS Machine seems to be working OK, but it just don't seem right.