star lathe still working on it

hey, like two months ago i posted messages asking for info about a seneca falls star lathe i acquired. i'm still working on it. i posted two pictures to show what i'm up to.

i think i mainly wanted to show the wood spacers i made in hopes of aligning the pulley shaft of the top step pulley parallel with the spindle (i imagined you guys, who're used to .0002" tolerances, will roll your eyes when you see that i'm using wood parts for alignment purposes). i had made a two sided saddle that i clamped between the step pulleys to hold them the proper distance apart and i tried to make it as accurately as possible in hopes that that would be sufficient to hold the top step pulley aligned properly but when i put on the wood-spacers-rube-goldberg-gizmo i saw that the end of the top shaft was about 1/8" (at 3 feet) out of alignment. my fear was that the flat belt was going to drift and not track correctly. (my biggest fear is *still* that the flat belt is going to "hunt" and require constant adjustment).

photo "lathe9", rear view. you can see the primer red painted "fork" that i made to hold the pillow block bearings that hold the 7/8" shaft that holds the top step pulley. gotta still weld a boss to the back that'll hold a tightening screw handle. the ladder-ish thing below the red fork is what i'm working on now. that'll be attached to a 1/4" thick plate that i bolted between the lathe bed and the legs and on top will be attached to the fork that holds the top step pulley. it'll have a bracket that'll grip the lathe back gear bosses, bracket will be bolted in the middle of the "ladder" (spaces between the rungs are going to be filled w/ 14 ga. sheet metal, as you can see the top rung is already filled/tacked in place.) oh, and gonna weld on to the ladder thingy a mount to put a motor.

question, do you guys have a reverse on your lathes? is a reverse more common than not?

i got a nice 13" vee belt pulley that's going to go on the right hand end of the 7/8" shaft on the top step pulley that'll go to the motor that's going to be welded to the ladder thingy.

the first set of wood spacers are to align the step pulley shaft to the spindle, the second set are to align the step pulley shaft with the pivot point on the belt tightener fork.

i wanted to/would've rather posted a picture after i was completely finished but i wanted to show you guys the rube goldberg rig i came up with to align the step pulley shaft with the spindle and the shaft to the pivot point. see if i can get any howls of incredulity.

b.w.