Free 186 More Best Homemade Tools eBook:  
Get 2,000+ tool plans, full site access, and more.

User Tag List

Results 1 to 6 of 6

Thread: Mini Lathe Gets a Drive Belt Replacement...3VX belt and pulleys

  1. #1
    Supporting Member jjr2001's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jun 2016
    Posts
    915
    Thanks
    1,182
    Thanked 2,044 Times in 553 Posts

    jjr2001's Tools

    Mini Lathe Gets a Drive Belt Replacement...3VX belt and pulleys

    Long over due but necessary with the new 1HP motor and VFD combo on my mini lathe.
    The little 1.5mm pitch timing belt and pulleys would slip and rip out teeth on even small jobs.

    First picture shows the new belt/pulleys.
    Second picture is the original timing belt and pulleys. The original timing pulley was
    about .420 thick and I had to make the new pulleys thicker in order to fit the wider
    3vx belt and still leave a bit of material on the side of the new pulleys.

    I thought the extreme belt tension that I had put on the timing belt would help but even with
    only drawing 2.3 amps (about 500 watts) that darn belt/pulley combo would self destruct.

    The first belt I was going to use was a 3L series by 20 inches long. But then I saw the HP
    specs for the belt and that was just tool low at low rpm with the small drive pulley on the
    mini lathe.

    3VX210......Then I found the 3VX cogged belt. HP was more than enough for my use. Both the
    3vx and 3L series belts use a 40 degree pulley. The old cog belt and pulley system were put
    back in use for the last time. I made two pulleys and added an extra idler to my drive system
    so I could use the 3VX210 belts. I found a source for the belts on eBay for a good price and bought
    2 of them. (I like spares). This belt is a bit on the long side for the mini lathe so I designed my pulleys
    to be quite large. As large as I could fit in the lathe without major work. The design required a recess to
    be milled in the threading gear/lead screw direction casting. No problem since I had a 6" rotary table and
    a mini mill.

    Two pulleys were turned. Spindle pulley is .525" thick and 2.520 inches in diameter. Drive pulley is
    .520 thick and 1.980 in diameter. Both of course were cut with a 40 degree taper. (20 deg per side).

    Since the belt is so long I had to add a second idler to keep the belt from rubbing on the threading gear casting.
    There is not a lot of tension on the new 3vx210 belt but enough to keep it from slipping. Much less tension
    than I had to use with the original timing belt.

    Minimum speed on the VFD was reduced to 4HZ from 6HZ to get back my very low speed on the spindle since I
    made the drive pulley larger than the original. (Got an increase in top speed but not too much higher).
    Cruised through the crust of some hot rolled steel like butter with a carbide bit.
    Made a few more cuts with the carbide bit and put the new motor/vfd to it's first test over 4 amps.
    Yep you guessed it. The new belt performed without any screech,squeal,or slip.
    Almost a full KW and it just keeps on turning...Very happy with the new belt/pulley combo.
    I ran another test as slow speed and I was able to stop the chuck without any slippage.
    The motor current went up and the VFD tripped out. Perfect....

    Note two links for the belt. Two weeks ago the smallest 3VX I could find was the 210 or 21 inches long.
    Recently I found the 205 or 21.5 inch belt. Originally I wanted a 200 and still can't find one! Anyway I think
    you can use belts from 20 to 21 inches long and still fit it all in the space that is available. Pulley diameters
    will change if you change belt lengths.

    Links:
    Belts
    https://www.ebay.com/itm/D-D-PowerDr...72.m2749.l2649

    https://www.ebay.com/itm/D-D-PowerDr...72.m2749.l2649

    Previous thread on Motor/VFD upgrade:
    http://www.homemadetools.net/forum/n...060#post120414

    Previous thread on first idler bearings for the old timing belt system:
    http://www.homemadetools.net/forum/m...175#post121106
    Attached Thumbnails Attached Thumbnails Mini Lathe Gets a Drive Belt Replacement...3VX belt and pulleys-img_2189.jpg   Mini Lathe Gets a Drive Belt Replacement...3VX belt and pulleys-img_2190.jpg   Mini Lathe Gets a Drive Belt Replacement...3VX belt and pulleys-img_2199.jpg   Mini Lathe Gets a Drive Belt Replacement...3VX belt and pulleys-img_2200.jpg   Mini Lathe Gets a Drive Belt Replacement...3VX belt and pulleys-img_2201.jpg  

    Mini Lathe Gets a Drive Belt Replacement...3VX belt and pulleys-img_2202.jpg   Mini Lathe Gets a Drive Belt Replacement...3VX belt and pulleys-img_2205.jpg   Mini Lathe Gets a Drive Belt Replacement...3VX belt and pulleys-img_2206.jpg   Mini Lathe Gets a Drive Belt Replacement...3VX belt and pulleys-img_2207.jpg   Mini Lathe Gets a Drive Belt Replacement...3VX belt and pulleys-img_2208.jpg  

    Mini Lathe Gets a Drive Belt Replacement...3VX belt and pulleys-img_2209.jpg   Mini Lathe Gets a Drive Belt Replacement...3VX belt and pulleys-img_2210.jpg   Mini Lathe Gets a Drive Belt Replacement...3VX belt and pulleys-img_2211.jpg  

    186 More Best Homemade Tools eBook

  2. The Following 3 Users Say Thank You to jjr2001 For This Useful Post:

    olderdan (Dec 4, 2018), Paul Jones (Dec 6, 2018), Seedtick (Dec 5, 2018)

  3. #2
    Supporting Member olderdan's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jun 2016
    Posts
    781
    Thanks
    1,456
    Thanked 1,531 Times in 463 Posts

    olderdan's Tools
    Nice work as usual and a and a good use of idler pulleys to get around an obstacle, only served to increase the grip radius on the small pulley.

    2000 Tool Plans

  4. The Following User Says Thank You to olderdan For This Useful Post:

    jjr2001 (Dec 4, 2018)

  5. #3
    Supporting Member jjr2001's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jun 2016
    Posts
    915
    Thanks
    1,182
    Thanked 2,044 Times in 553 Posts

    jjr2001's Tools
    Thanks Dan, the lathe is a joy to use now!
    Cheers, JR

  6. #4
    Content Editor
    Supporting Member
    DIYer's Avatar
    Join Date
    Aug 2013
    Posts
    3,056
    Thanks
    772
    Thanked 1,850 Times in 1,652 Posts


    Thanks jjr2001! We've added your Mini Lathe Pulley Modification to our Lathes category,
    as well as to your builder page: jjr2001's Homemade Tools. Your receipt:




  7. The Following User Says Thank You to DIYer For This Useful Post:

    jjr2001 (Dec 6, 2018)

  8. #5
    Supporting Member
    Join Date
    Aug 2016
    Posts
    635
    Thanks
    1
    Thanked 187 Times in 166 Posts

    wizard69's Tools
    Nice work! I'm glad you pointed out that a belts horsepower rating varies a lot with RPM and pulley size. I've seen a lot of undersized belts over the years and a lot of the Chinese equipment are good examples of bad belt selection.

    Now that you have a proper belt, you will have to worry about breaking something else on the machine.

  9. The Following User Says Thank You to wizard69 For This Useful Post:

    jjr2001 (Dec 7, 2018)

  10. #6
    Supporting Member jjr2001's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jun 2016
    Posts
    915
    Thanks
    1,182
    Thanked 2,044 Times in 553 Posts

    jjr2001's Tools
    Thanks Wizard69, hopefully that would be limited to carbide bit tips!
    With the VFD on the motor the max load current is settable and I have tested it.
    So far so good, it trips out at my setting which is about 4 amps or about 900 watts.
    The motor runs very cool. I have not seen it over 27 degrees C so far.

    Cheers, JR



    186 More Best Homemade Tools eBook

Thread Information

Users Browsing this Thread

There are currently 1 users browsing this thread. (0 members and 1 guests)

Tags for this Thread

Bookmarks

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •