Speed Reducer

[BlackieSmith]

Didn’t know where else to put this. A picture of my WV speed reducer.

[algale]

Is that a Shopsmith band saw wheel being used for the big pulley?

What's the small pully?

Considering how many here own multiple Shopsmiths, this might be a practical way for a lot of members to get a slow speed.

[BlackieSmith]

Just regular lite duty 5/8” bore pullies. The large one is 12” and the small one is 2”. That gets me down to 125 rpm or close about. Grainger has a 14” that would get me 107 rpm. This site has some good calculators that can be useful to the folks here. https://www.blocklayer.com/pulley-belteng.aspx

[dgale]

How do you keep the machines separated so the belt stays under tension? Even if they are sitting on the ground off the casters, it would seem like it would gradually pull one machine closer to the other and you would start to lose belt tension (?)

[BlackieSmith]

I was going to put a stiff arm between them but so far it works good. A little slack works best during a “catch”.

[woodmeister]

looks like it would work fine just take up more space and be careful of the open area of belts. Shop smith comes through again.
Thanks