Myford's Log, Supplemental...

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Still trial & erroring the main drive train for the lathe. I've got what I think might be the final geometry of the thing sorted and have moved the main vee-belt inboard of the bearing on the driveshaft - I didn't like the amount of out of line leverage the original outboard mounting was exerting on the rest of the affair. I did manage to find a slightly longer belt, which gave me some slack to play with without resorting to re-drilling the old frame, so I think I'll fabricate an idler wheel to tension the belt and keep it out of the way of the frame where it passes over it.

The other thing I've definitely decided on is to remove the rubber mounts and bolt the motor rigidly to the bracket, having already decided that I'm going to mount the whole thing vertically behind the lathe (there's not a lot of bench real-estate to play with). With everything aligned and properly (lightly) tensioned, the amount of vibration should be minimal: I'll probably use the shock mounts for the bottom of the bracket itself, where it is mounted to the bench. I might experiment with an idler/tensioner for the flat-belt final drive too, which if it works will give me leeway in mounting everything and make changing chuck-speeds a whole lot easier, too.

One thing's for sure, I'll consider constructing some manner of belt-guarding: open belts thrashing away never bothered me as a youth in the old shed at Winson Street, but sixteen years of HSE safety checks with BT/Openreach have left me a very cautious bloke, indeed. Keep you posted on progress.

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