Love of lathes.

[Retired]

Hi,

I'm sorry to hear of the demise of your cat Lawrence. You do love playing with big boys toys; a 12" hand planer being used by a novice makes me shudder but such machines are sold openly to anyone having the cash; this is now the time of year when the A&E departments can start expecting DIY'ers arriving having awoken from winter?

Excellent idea Refugee; yes I could take along the drive belts to auto spares supplier and get them matched against a "Poly V belt". I misunderstood the term for serpentine belt as used in the states thinking this to be a timing belt but I now think the term simply relates to Poly V belts which are readily available. I could still use old timing belts with the cross teeth because it wouldn't cost anything to experiment with these other than a drop of glue?

Barge cement was also new to me Alan D until I started to browse Practical Machinist forum where it is mentioned many times and it appears to be good stuff?

Thanks for your suggestion Colin regarding Titebond adhesive. Such adhesives are also mentioned on Practical Machinist but unfortunately reports are poor and this even applies to Gorilla Glue which fails miserably if used to join leather drive belts; I've spent hours browsing the web and forums trying to find the best adhesive to use and so far for joining leather drive belts it really comes down to two types of adhesive; hot hide glue and Barge cement; many adhesives actually "creep" whereas hide glue doesn't creep at all.

The rough sketch below shows the drive belt/pulley arrangement and it can be seen that both front and back surfaces of the belt come into direct contact with pulleys. The idler pulley is located very close to the mandrel pulley and this must impose tremendous stresses on the belt joints? I would have cheerfully installed a Poly V drive belt here but unfortunately the belt needs cutting in order to install it then it needs re-joining in the lathe. The Lorch is a brilliant lathe but I think the design could have been better thought out regarding this mandrel drive belt?

I've also been browsing the web looking at various adhesives suitable for plastic/rubber bonding; Loctite "made for plastics" is recommended on Practical Machinist for joining modern poly v type drive belts and this looks ideal;

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Loctite-401-x-...ltDomain_3&hash=item1e82e7d40a

Whilst at Rufforth Auto Jumble about a year ago both David and I bought some super strong super glue; the guy selling this glue was giving demonstrations and one demonstration he glued two large steel nuts together using only five dots of glue; a few seconds later he threw the two nuts onto the ground and they remained glued; a second demonstration he joined the ends of some small diameter rubber belting and in a few seconds he asked spectators to pull as hard as they could on the belting to try to break the joint whilst he held part of the belt in his hands; he was pulled from his feet but the joint held; I have this glue but it's in the garage; I'll check what grade it is and post the details.

I'm now slowed down regarding working on the Lorch to finish it off due to the Easter holiday but I'm over the moon to have it working.

Kind regards, Col.