The Super Adept Is Back On The Menu

I'd look at poly vee belt, very flexible, but in the ultimate will slip if you get a dig in. Only reservation is can you keep oil off the pulleys? Having a flinger both sides might help. The lathesuk site is quite complimentary about the Super Adept, and it's probably a bit small for a boat anchor

Hi David. Welcome back.

Silicon O rings have been used as drive belts for a variety of small machines and accessories and work quite well. They are probably variable ( by design ) in their hardness but the ones I have used have typically been a little harder than the soft nitrile ones but rather softer than the Viton type.

They have the advantage of good stretch and seem to get a good grip on the pulley, limiting slip. I would be quite happy to use one as the drive belt on a small lathe such as the adept. The other options to consider are a polyurethane belt ( diy cut and join version ) or a small toothed belt.

Good luck with the lathe, it looks from the photo to be in very good condition considering its age.

Pero

As your pulley is between two bearings I'd go with the round urathane or green round belts that can easily be joined at home rather than having to cut less grippy O rings

I agree with Jason

Generalising outrageously from just a single comparison:

The textured green belts coming out of China seem to be a very good approximation of the expensive Swiss ones

… except in price !

MichaelG.

Thank you all. Will check all suggestions out.

I have been thinking about how to proceed with this project and have decided what to do,

I need to make a new mandrel. This will be suitable for taking unimat 3 lathe chucks.

The original mandrel, Vee pulley and 4 jaw chuck will be sold on Ebay.

I have worked out how to screw cut the M14 x 1mm pitch thread using the Super Adept itself.

I have been searching on Ebay for a suitable picador countershaft but they sell for stupid money.

Yesterday, I won one in an auction, jut £12 + post so I can move on.

The new drive will be timing pulleys as used for printers etc. They are available cheaply on Amazon and ebay.

Next step, motor. This will probably be a 24 volt motor, again from ebay, and a variable speed controller.

Things are slowly moving on.