Any reason not to use Lovejoy couplings?

heathicus · Post by **heathicus** » Wed Jul 17, 2013 9:27 am

Bill, I'm interested in your experience. How did you keep the Lovejoy hub from moving further down the spindle and separating from the spider upon use? I could see using a spacer to keep the Lovejoy hub out toward the end of the spindle, but in the case of the jigsaw on my 10ER, any washers or spacers I had with a 5/8" hole (such as those used with the dado arbor) were too large in outside diameter and prevented use of the jigsaw.

joshh · Post by **joshh** » Wed Jul 17, 2013 9:35 am

IMO, the biggest benefit of the lovejoy coupler is that it's short.

I wonder if instead we could use the coupler that is inside the Shopsmith speed reducer ( 515798 )

It mounts to the spindle on one end and accepts the 5-spline hub on the other. I think it's about half the length of the standard coupler and about 1/3 of the price.

*images borrowed from pieceseeker*

joshh · Post by **joshh** » Wed Jul 17, 2013 2:05 pm

Wow that's stupid...

Price before my posting was $6.98

Now hours later it's $22.94

Guess I won't be buying 3 after all and will buy 3 lovejoys instead... I'm all for supporting shopsmith but this left a REALLY bad taste in my mouth...

No good deed and all...

freedomlives · Post by **freedomlives** » Wed Jul 17, 2013 3:54 pm

joshh wrote: Price before my posting was $6.98

Now hours later it's $22.94

Are you serious?

billmayo · Post by **billmayo** » Wed Jul 17, 2013 4:50 pm

heathicus wrote:Bill, I'm interested in your experience. How did you keep the Lovejoy hub from moving further down the spindle and separating from the spider upon use? I could see using a spacer to keep the Lovejoy hub out toward the end of the spindle, but in the case of the jigsaw on my 10ER, any washers or spacers I had with a 5/8" hole (such as those used with the dado arbor) were too large in outside diameter and prevented use of the jigsaw.

I use the 5/8" bore lovejoy couplings with set screw, no key way. I keep a supply of knurled cup point set screws (5/16"X18) in 1/4", 5/16" & 3/8" lengths. These have always held whatever attachment I used them including saw arbors. I get them at http://www.mcmaster.com/#set-screws/=nnxt89. I just ignore any warnings about using this type of set screw. A metal cutting file will always clean up any distrubed shaft metal. I only use them a few times before replacing them with new set screw. The 1/4" knurled cup set screw works much better than the cone point set screw in the eccentric bushing for holding the idler shaft bearing. It does not deflect the bearing housing like the cone point which can cause ticking noises in the headstock or loosen to allow the idler shaft to move which can cause abnormal belt wear. Just one of the many changes I make when rebuilding headstocks.

joshh · Post by **joshh** » Wed Jul 17, 2013 5:03 pm

freedomlives wrote:Are you serious?

Very serious

I had 3 in my shopping cart and got busy at work. After I came back, the page had expired and the item price had been updated. I guess they saw my post about the speed reducer coupling and upped the price to match it the regular version.

heathicus · Post by **heathicus** » Wed Jul 17, 2013 5:04 pm

Do you drill and tap a new hole in the Lovejoy hub for the set screw? The set screw on my Lovejoy connectors is very tiny. McMaster Carr's web site says the set screw size is 3/8"-16.

dusty · Post by **dusty** » Wed Jul 17, 2013 6:27 pm

joshh wrote:Wow that's stupid...

Price before my posting was $6.98

Now hours later it's $22.94

Guess I won't be buying 3 after all and will buy 3 lovejoys instead... I'm all for supporting shopsmith but this left a REALLY bad taste in my mouth...

No good deed and all...

Stupid? That is not what I would call it! I am becoming less and less addicted.

billmayo · Post by **billmayo** » Wed Jul 17, 2013 6:43 pm

heathicus wrote:Do you drill and tap a new hole in the Lovejoy hub for the set screw? The set screw on my Lovejoy connectors is very tiny. McMaster Carr's web site says the set screw size is 3/8"-16.

I checked the ones I have. The have a 1/4" krunled cup set screw in each of them. Only 1/16" smaller than the Shopsmith 5/16" set screw. I never had any of them come loose when using them.

joshh · Post by **joshh** » Wed Jul 17, 2013 6:54 pm

dusty wrote:Stupid? That is not what I would call it! I am becoming less and less addicted.

This reminds me of when I was a mechanic. My boss used to always gripe at me for discounting repairs after the customer flat out said they couldn't afford it and to put their car back together. I would discount it to a point they could afford, but company still made a lot of profit (the software for estimates showed exact cost to the company).

I asked him:
What is 40% of ZERO?
What is 20% of $1,000?

He would rather me not discount it and lose the sale so he didn't hurt his 'margins'.

Penny wise and pound foolish. Instead of making a couple of bucks several times over, they increased the price TRYING to make more money and instead made nothing...

Edit: I know why they raised the price...they want people buying the regular coupler for over 3 times as much instead of this substitute. This is the 3rd time I have seen something mentioned on the forums get jacked up in price because of a post. If they are reading this, maybe they should give a notice that in a couple of days they will be raising the price instead of punishing us without warning for keeping the forums active.