Anyone own a GH1440W lathe from Modern Tools or a PM1440HD from Precision Matthews?

[John Conroy]

When I was changing the oils last week I noticed that some of the grease from the geat train has been flung onto the belts. I've been noticing a little belt noise lately so I ordered a new matched pair of belts from Motion Canada today. There is a splash shield for the belts but for some reason it only covers the bottom of the gear train. Before I install the new belts I thought I should remedy that so bent up an extension for the shield and fastened to the original with pop rivets.
I think it will do the job nicely.

 

[PeterT]

I think that's a good mod John. I've noticed I get a fine dust off my belt as it slowly wears. No issues there, but that plus lubrication on the gears makes a black mung. Personally I think my gears are happier with grease but a) black mung syndrome b) its still possible for some bit of swarf to find its way up in there, don't ask me how. I don't want to digest it on a gear tooth, so I give them a light coat of heavy gear oil. Seems to be the best compromise on this machine. But your guard makes chambers mitigate both those issues.

Are Motion Canada belts better quality than typical generic X at Napa store?

 

[John Conroy]

I just realized that you really cant see it in the picture but there are a pair of belts on the drive pulleys. I tried to order a matched pair of belts from Napa and they couldn't guarantee the same length. Due to manufacturing tolerances the length can vary over an inch for the same part number according to the guy at Napa. Back when I used to work on heavy trucks lots of alternators were driven by a pair of v belts and we could order matched pairs that were the same length within a very tight tolerance. V belts on vehicles are a thing of the past so I guess Napa doesn't offer them any more. V belts are still used in lots of Industrial applications and it is common to have 2 or more belts on the same pair of pulleys. Motion Industries (used to be BC Bearing) is used to requests for matched belts and the sales guy didn't even flinch when I asked him about them. He gave me a link to info from Gates belts. They have a special matching program (the V80 program) that allows vendors to supply matched belts to very tight tolerance. I learned a lot about belts today.