Here's a success story to share with Jet 14-42 lathe owners. Those are the older machines with a Reeves Drive speed control for which Jet no longer supplies critical parts. (Perhaps this situation is only temporary and the supply-chain bottleneck is the cause, but the fact is that it will be hard to keep these lathes operational without replacement parts. The two sets of pot-metal pulleys, especially, are prone to wearing out.)
One of my students came to me, frustrated, that his lathe was clanking and the upper variable speed pulley was wobbling to heck. I happened to have an old, but serviceable, set of them he could have. He installed them and also replaced a worn ball bearing, and the machine was better but still clanked. We checked everywhere, Jet, eReplacementsParts, etc,, and absolutely no one had replacement pulleys. It seemed like a lost cause.
I have long theorized that these could be remanufactured by boring out the center and installing a bronze sleeve. Well, we took them to a local machinist, and -- SUCCESS! The speed control works better than it ever has, and the tougher bronze will outlast the pot-metal that was original. So, for those of you who have a worn 14-42 don't dismay (or toss your lathe off the bridge; it CAN be fixed. The cost was $300.
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While I'm on this topic, I'd like to offer a comment about the much-maligned Reeves Drive systems. Yes, they're prone to wearing out but this can be minimized with some reasonable maintenance. Clean and lubricate the shafts often. With some greases and oils, there's a tendency to become sticky over time and collect fine sawdust, which prevents the pulleys from moving freely. This causes the belt to bind and cause excessive wear. The other pitfall is that operators try to change speeds when the machine isn't turning, placing excessive force on the pot-metal. I owned one of these Jets for a decade and turned, probably, 10-thousand items on it, so I know it's a good system. Just understand how it works and take care of it.
