Delta 46-700 pulley alignment and belt tension?

[Timothy Thorpe Allen]

My Delta 46-700 lathe had been in an inaccessible part of the shop/studio for quite a few years, but I pulled it out a week or two ago to try get back into some turning.

I don't think this has anything to do with the period of inactivity, but one thing I encountered was essentially zero torque at the low speed setting. I pulled the covers off and the belt seems very loose at the low-speed setting, barely making any contact with the motor pulley:

LooseBeltLowSpeedDetailWeb.jpg

The other thing I noticed is that the spindle pulley and the motor pulley are not lined up, so the belt has to make a significant sideways jog, particularly noticeable at the high speed setting:

AlignmentHighSpeedWeb.jpg

So, is this "normal"? Am I due for a belt replacement? Should I shift the spindle pulley to the left for better alignment, or shift the motor pulley to the right (or leave them alone)? Just run at higher speeds, when the belt is under more tension?

The pulley parts at the motor end look OK: the key is intact, the movable side of the pulley appears to be in decent shape, and the fixed side is not up against the motor (I saw a video about that...). But perhaps the movable part of the spindle pulley might have been stuck and might benefit from lubrication?

Any thoughts or suggestions welcome, although upgrading to a better lathe is probably not an available short-term solution... Thanks!

[Richard Coers]

Misalignment is never normal. Belt stretch after a few years and never running is. Be extremely careful with those reeves drive pulleys. They are as brittle as glass. Don't pry them off the shaft or you will be calling Grizzly to order a generic set. Lubrication of reeves drive pulleys is essential!

[Bill Bukovec]

Richard is correct. The pulleys are extremely fragile. To make matters worse, Delta no longer sells the parts. Seriously Delta, did you think those lousy pulleys would go unnoticed?

[Timothy Thorpe Allen]

OK, so what I did was to shift the spindle pulley to the left a bit, and re-set the "stop" on the speed adjusting screw so that the movable side of the motor pulley doesn't open quite as far, such that the sides of the belt still have some contact with the sides of the pulley at the lowest speed setting. I did try moving the fixed side of the motor pulley a bit to the right, but just loosening the set screw didn't free it up enough to get it to move. I thought about getting my gear puller, but the pulley does look pretty flimsy and my two-arm puller would probably just distort the thing if not break it. So I put the covers back on and am back to turning....