Warco V Belt Change

Recently aquired this warco lathe, and unsure how to change the belts, very little slack can be gained by loosening the mounts for the motor, and I see no way of getting the first belt off its smallest pully.

My thoughts are the middle stack of pullies comes off (it is only held on by a circlip) But not wanting to do this with out knowing for sure this is how to change the belts?

Drive is bottom left, top right feeds the chuck, and the middle just seems to be an idler

Not familiar with the Warco but if that three pulley set up is like most of them, that middle pulley should be mounted on a pivoting arm. So if you can move the motor a bit towards the centre pulley it should then be able to move enough toward the headstock spindle to roll the belt off the middle pulley as it is rotated. Then the middle pulley should be free to move toward the motor and allow belt removal. That's my theory, anyway.

Edited By Hopper on 16/03/2023 06:12:19

Yes, I would have thought that too, the same proceedure as the pillar drills. Unfortunately the motor has only a very small movement, ¼inch. And that is no where enough to get the first pulley off, esp with its smallest ulle hidden down the back of its biggest

That p[icture looks as iff the motor can be moved upwatrds by more than 1/4", which should slacken the primary belt enough to remove it

As Hopper says, somewhere ther should be a clamp for the arm carrying the intermediate pulley. How aboiut nthe setscrews in the black plate?

Unable to enlarge the shots to get a better view

Howard

Hi Justin,

Give Warco a call, (01428 682929) I'm sure they will help you

Depending on the age of the lathe, you could even treat it to a new belt

Steve

That looks like the Warco equivalent of the Clarke CL500M lathe, for which the manual can be downloaded here

Page 17 discusses changing & tensioning the spindle drive belts.

HTH

Nigel B

You would have thought that the idler pulley was the one to move but the pulleys all look as if they are in a straight line which means moving the motor, or could it possibly be that at sometime in its history it has had shorter belts fitted?

Look at page 21 of this Grizzly manual for their version of this machine. It also suggests loosening the idler pulley nut but shows a view of the nut they are referring to.

Grizzly CL4015Z manual

Martin C

Edited By Martin Connelly on 17/03/2023 12:54:30

What Model Warco lathe is it?

Looks like the motor mounting plate is pivoted below, and you just need to slacken the bolt in the slot above. This could well have a nut on each side to loosen, not be very convenient. After changing belt position, tension with the hidden nut and lock with the accessible one.

Mine's a bit different in that one belt has a swivelling tension roller, but the motor belt doesn't.

To move a belt, I just thumb it up the side of a pulley whilst turning the pulley to provide the necessary leverage to ride the belt up, onto, and over the edge. After a little practice not difficult with the recommended 10 to 15mm slack in the belt.

Once popped off the belt is fitted around the new small pulley, and then pulled back onto the bigger pulley with the same procedure, except this time lifted into the groove.

There's no need to adjust the tension by moving the motor or to take anything apart.

I'm self taught and could be doing it wrong!

Dave

Hi Dave, you are in fact doing it wrong, V belts should not be forced over over one groove to the next, as it can damage both the pulley and the belt, and you may not even notice the damage to the belt as it will probably be the cords inside the belt that gets the damage, as they have very little stretching ability. The amount of slack needed will depend upon the belts and the centre distance between the pullies, your 10 to 15mm doesn't cover all situations.

Regards Nick.

Well I agree with SOD except to mention you always take it off the large pulley first. However teh setup does look a bit odd as one usually have the cone of pulleys going in opposite directions so the large is in line with the small on the other one. Also very odd to have the motor small pulley hidden like that. I suspect a previous owner made some modifications or if it as per manual the designer needs shooting.

Lots of drilling machines have to be swapped just like that, even old British industrial ones.

Many thanks for all the replies, the belts do indeed come off in the way described above, the motor can be loosened and tilted, then the centre pullies can also be loosened and tilted. Problem is all the heavy wiring goes through the gap the motor tilts into and this makes in very very difficult. It can't be how it was designed!

But oddly, the belt from the motor to the idler (centre pulleys, does it have a better name?) only fits in the position as shown above, for any of the other 3 positions a shorter belt will be needed, seems odd, I thought the belt would fit all positions like the belt from the idler to the chuck does (and all other such systems as I have seen in the past)

Anyway, had the machine running today and turned a bit of steel, seemed to be all working well apart from the low turning speed

I think as someone noted earlier, it looks like one of those stepped pulleys is on back to front, as they usually go opposite way round to each other so one belt fits all steps because the one pulley gets smaller as the other gets bigger, sort of thing.

It looks like some previous owner has changed things around, possibly fitting an extra small pulley in behind the motor pulley and possibly flipping the stepped motor pulley around in the process, unless the centre pulley has been flipped around.

EDIT: If you look on page 21 of the Grizzly manual Martin Connelly posted above, it looks like you motor pulley is on back to front and possibly has had an extra small non-standard pulley fitted behind it. Sort that out and one belt should fit all speeds.

Edited By Hopper on 19/03/2023 01:22:13

As noted above, this lathe is the same as the Clarke CL430/500. The pulleys are as supplied, and the small one on the primary pulley is integral. I think your belts could be a bit longer, and the motor tensioning screw looks a bit short. The primary and intermediate pulleys can be flipped, if you wish. Here is a pic of mine. You are missing the drive gears for the lead screw ( mine is slightly different because I have fitted a tumbler reverse). I also have a vfd, so don't often change belts between pulleys.

Btw, the secondary belt is tensioned first by moving the intermediate pulley in its slot, then the primary belt is tensioned with the pivot screw. Or simply use the pivot screw with the intermediate spindle loosened, and then tighten the spindle. Lots of well meaning guessing on here!

Edited By john halfpenny on 19/03/2023 08:58:30

If you look at the picture of supplied parts in the Clarke manual there are 4 drive belts. Overly complicated system it seems. I can see why a VFD would be preferable as John has found out.

Martin C

Looking at the diagram on the front of the lathe, it is showing the pulleys are installed correctly. I am now wondering if for configuration FG&H, should there be one long belt from the Motor Pulley to the Chuck Pulley. ? (I can't imagine this not fowling the centre pulley but may if they were spinning at the same speed this would not matter?)

Page 17 of the Warco manual strongly recommends removing the idler pulley when using one long belt.

Martin C