Looking for 24" antique leather belt sheave

Wooden pulleys work fine with leather belts.

-jsw

But a wooden pulley will have neither the mass nor the inertia of a big ol' heavy chunk of cast iron .

I scrap a lot of old stuff. I often come across flat belt pulleys, and they sometimes even sell pretty well for usable. However, U have never seen a stepped one.

Check with a local steamers club. They often have odds-n-ends like that lying around that might be adaptable to your purpose.

Lloyd

Yeah, stepped ones aren't as common in large diameters as in small. The one I want needs to be 24 to 26 inches diameter on the largest diameter and 5 inches wide. I would consider modifying a regular one. Maybe even three 1.5 inches wide sheaves that decrease in diameter by one inch per step that I can attach to each other. Eric

Make one. Not really difficult. Take some plywood, cut out 24" circles. Drill a hole in the center for a shaft of appropriate size. Now glue up a stack to the correct width. To make a hub hit up a farm supply store and buy a couple weld a sprocket discs and hubs. Weld them up and drill for bolts to go through the wood. Tighten everything up while centering it real well. Now rotate the shaft and use a belt sander to shape the pulley and give it a gentle crown.

as an example.

"Steve W." fired this volley in news:lqeo7u$o90$1 @dont-email.me:

I had a plywood idler on an old F.E. Reed lathe. It worked fine, with Delrin bushing. I wouldn't have been comfortable using it to transfer the power, though.

Again... why not check out a steamers club, and see if they have any old stepped flat-belt pulleys. They're pretty common.

Lloyd

As the OP suggested a steamers group. Also the EARLY DAY GAS ENGINE AND TRACTOR ASSOCIATION. They often have swap meets. I used to sell regularly at our local one and flat belt pulleys were in demand. Also Google Eureka Magazine. It is a forum for mining artifact collectors. They have both a wanted section and a big iron section. No charge and open to all.

CP

Greetings Steve, My intent is to have this lathe as close to original as possible, so that it will work like it was made to. If I use a treadle to power the lathe I will need the flywheel effect that the big sheave will have. A plywood sheave just won't have enough inertia to make cutting metal practical. If I can find a fractional horsepower electric motor that was made before 1907 I could use it to power an overhead lineshaft with a stepped sheave on it because I have the original factory supplied stepped sheave that went on a lineshaft. Right now it looks like I will have to use an overhead shaft powered by a motor made in the 30s to operate the lathe. But I want it to be powered by a human. This lathe will be on display in my office. Eric

Howdy Pilgrim ( said like John Wayne would say it), Thanks for the suggestion. Eric

In his case, it is a pedal operated lathe.

Hello, fellow prepper!

Treadle, for historical precision, or bike-pedal, for usefulness?

You will probably never find a suitable replacement that did not come off the same lathe. Not only does the base diameter have to be right, but the change in dia at the steps has to match your headstock.

If it would help, I have a couple of spoked cast iron vee belt pulleys out of an old dumbwaiter. Single groove, 24" pitch dia. 25+ actual od. I think an 1.125" bore.

I could probably sell one and not lose any sleep. They are heavy enough to get some flywheel action. Two possibilities. It could be used to form the core of a built up wooden pulley, or used to drive your other pulley set, via a jackshaft.

Paul K. Dickman

Looking at the picture, I see two sets of spokes. An inside and an outside set. SO the original was cast as at least two pieces and then probably riveted together.

The weight that is useful is only in the rim part. Can you make or have made the rim part/parts from oak or maple? Then, can you turn the hub and make the wooden spokes?

The rim parts can have the necessary weight added by drilling the rim from the inside and adding iron or lead weights. Could even drill from the edge and put in longer weights.

The real challenge then is securely fastening the spokes to the hub and the rim.

All doable with some imagination!

Good luck, Paul

I'm not a prepper, but I do see a need to stock up on more emergency supplies than I have. As far as treadle or bicycle goes I would rather the treadle. The lathe was offered with either treadle, pedal, or overhead drive. Besides the fact that I like the treadle more just because of looks there is also the matter that treadles can be used while standing. The bicycle pedal setup needs someone to sit and pedal. And I do not have the seat that would go with the lathe. The real reason for getting the thing working with a treadle is to show customers what could be done a century ago. Show and tell. Eric

Greetings Paul, Thanks for the offer. If it turns out (oops, a pun) that I can't find a flat one I'll be contacting you. Cheers, Eric

Actually Ig, the lathe was offered new with either pedal or treadle options. In the leg castings on my lathe are bores for the treadle shaft. Eric

Good eye Paul! I did not notice the two set of spokes. That makes it much easier then. No looking around for a 5 inch wide, 24 inch diameter stepped flat leather belt sheave. Now I am going to concentrate on finding single sheaves. As far as the wood sheave idea goes I could build one up. Using maple wood would be a good idea. I wonder how the fix the spokes to the hub. I'm thinking that some sort of clamping arrangement might work. Thanks for the suggestions. And for noticing the dual spokes. Cheers, Eric

I've seen old farm implement wheels with heavy metal spokes clamped between metal hubs, with bolts between the spokes.

Pete Keillor