Question about the Reeves drive system.

[Bill White]

I keep reading bad stuff about any reeves drive system for lathes.
I have one on my very basic Grizz lathe, and it has been no problem in use for almost 10 years.
I do keep it well maintained, cleaned, lubed, etc., so what's the issue(s)?
Bill

[Curt Fuller]

I think you've pretty much nailed it Bill. Properly maintained, the Reeves drive works like a charm. Sure there's probably some wear issues over time, but most of the issures I've read about were maintenance related.

[Dan Masshardt]

How many users don't keep it well maintained, cleaned and lubed? Probably quite a few.

[Michelle Rich]

I've had a reeves drive grizzly for over 25 yrs..it hasn't even needed a new belt. People just like to yap. If it didn't cost 4,000.00 it's crap. Use your griz and enjoy turning

[David DeCristoforo]

I have been accused, many times, of being "old school". Be that as it may, I prefer the Reeves drive over electronic controllers.

I realize that electronic controllers can offer some advantage, primarily the ability to easily reverse the direction of rotation and the elimination of moving parts that are subject to wear and tear and require maintenance.

On the other hand, I have a list of euphemisms that have become imbedded in our consciousness, one of which is "No maintenance required". That really means "Cannot be maintained or repaired". This is the big issue for me with electronics. Sooner or later, they will fail. And when they do, there's no fixing them. The only option is to replace the entire unit and toss the "old one" in the trash can.

So far, I have never had the need to run my lathe backwards. But there have been many times when I needed to repair a tool, only to discover that it was not repairable. I have a Virutex biscuit joiner that I bought around 1980. It even has a switch that can be dismantled and cleaned or repaired. OK. It only has one speed. And no digital readout. And no electronic depth controller. It really only has one thing going for it. It works. And it can be repaired when it doesn't.

So I say, keep your Reeves drive. If you maintain it and keep it relatively clean, it will work fine and serve you well.

[Jim Underwood]

Had a lathe with a Reeves Drive on it. It was a 12" x 33" model from Harbor Freight. One day there was a knocking noise under the shield. Turns out the pulley wasn't lined up correctly, and had worn the belt, which was also dry rotted and coming apart. I loosened all the set screws, and with some WD-40 tried to lube the pulley and shaft so the pulley could be lined up correctly. When I pried on it, the thing shattered into a million pieces. It's just a thin alloy pulley, and the cost of the thing wasn't much, but after all the trouble I had with that lathe (the pulley wasn't the only thing cheap about it), I decided to just sell it, and buy a Jet mini 1014. I never regretted that.

Some people have had that lathe and really liked it. Lot's of people have gotten started with it, turned lots of stuff with it, and then moved on to a better lathe.
Personally, I'd rather have started with the little Jet.

Your mileage may vary.

[Jon Shank]

I have that Harbor Freight lathe, still in the learning the ropes stage myself. So far it's been a whole lot of bang and a whole lot of fun for the buck. I have no doubt at this point I'll want to upgrade it eventually, but I'm pretty happy with it for the time being. For one, I'd like something heavier, I've gotten this thing dancing pretty good a couple times already. And 2 I'd really like to have some lower speeds available. Reverse sounds good in theory but having not had it I guess I'm not completely sure what I'm missing.

This is the first tool I've had with a Reeves drive though. It's been trouble free other than replacing the belt, which even the HF guy told me to do right off the bat much less forum denizens. I'm sure I can find it online, but other than blowing it out occasionally and squirting some WD-40 into the sliding pulley mechanism(that's all I've been doing so far.), is there any maintenance I should be doing that I'm not? Specifically for the drive system I mean, not the lathe overall.

Jon

[Richard Coers]

Not all machines, but many with reeves drive; will not run at less than 400 rpm which makes natural edge or off center work a challenge, some machines are not infinitely variable. They have detents that set speeds, not a tweak of 10 rpm like you can get with electronic. That makes a huge difference to turning larger bowls. And noise. I had a reeves drive Delta and then bought a Oneway. It was like I almost could not hear the Oneway running.

[Roy Turbett]

Not all machines, but many with reeves drive; will not run at less than 400 rpm which makes natural edge or off center work a challenge, some machines are not infinitely variable. They have detents that set speeds, not a tweak of 10 rpm like you can get with electronic. That makes a huge difference to turning larger bowls. And noise. I had a reeves drive Delta and then bought a Oneway. It was like I almost could not hear the Oneway running.

Thats probably the biggest disadvantage of a reeves drive. I have three Powermatic 90's and use three different size pulleys on the motor to obtain the speed ranges I want. My 1955 PM90 has the reeves drive mounted directly to the 3 phase motor and a speed range of 600 - 4000 RPM at 60 Hz which is way too fast for turning bowls. I added a VFD to this lathe and can slow the lathe to 220 RPM at 20 Hz.

My other two lathes have jackshafts with a 5.25" drive pulley mounted next to the reeves drive. One of them has a 3 phase motor with a VFD and a 3.75" pulley on the motor. It has a speed range of 460 - 3000 RPM at 60 Hz but can be slowed down to under 200 RPM at 20 Hz. The other one has a single phase motor and a 2.7" pulley on the motor. It has a speed range of 360 - 2100 RPM and can't go any slower.

I haven't found noise to be a big issue. However, my 1955 lathe is noticably louder than the other two because it has seen the most use and the reeves drive positioning pins have some wear.

[Bill Boehme]

A Reeves drive that is well made will last a long time. Unfortunately, too many woodturning lathes made within the past ten or so years were not well made.I am very meticulous about caring for machinery, but nothing could help the Delta 1440 basically due to one thing -- the Reeves pulleys were made very cheaply using die cast zinc rather than machined ductile cast iron. Most everything else about the lathe was good, but there is not any cure for the pulley problem. I made a number of design improvements to my lathe to extend the life of the pulleys, but there is only so much that can be done to help a poor design. My opinion is that the lathe was probably designed under the erroneous assumption that spindle turning would be its main use.

[James W Engle]

I have a Gold colored PM 90 one of last ones made, it runs like a charm and has many nice characteristics. I would like to put a VFD on it to replace the static converter in order to have reverse but for no other reason.