A Reeves drive? Not really.

7/31/04, 6:30 PM #1

Russ Fairfield
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Registered: 12/31/03

A Reeves drive? Not really.

Russ Fairfield

>The problems that Ruth and others are having is that they do not really have a "Reeves Drive". They may look like a Reeves Drive and work like a Reeves Drive, but that is as far as any comparison can be made. It's like our calling all gelatine deserts JellO, but not all gelatine deserts are the "JellO" brand. Or, we call all kitchen refrigerators a "Frigidaire" (at least some of us still do), but not all refrigerators are a "Frigidaire" nameplate on them.

"Reeves" is a brand name for an industrial drive with variable diameter pulleys. These drives will operate for many years with little or no maintenance. However, the cost of such a drive will exceed what we are paying for the lathe whose manufacturer tells us that it uses a Reeves drive. The reality is that the Reeves Drive pattents expired about 50 years ago and there are a lot of look-alikes being used, and that is as far as any comparison can be made with the real thing.

Re: A Reeves drive? Not really.

7/31/04, 11:34 PM #2

Ruth
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Re: A Reeves drive? Not really.

Ruth

>Russ,

What do I have? It's a single unit with a movable center section, there are teeth or cogs on what could be called 1/2 a pulley on either end and the center moves with the change of gears.

I love your endless bits of knowledge : )

Re: A Reeves drive? Not really.

8/1/04, 2:40 AM #3

Arch
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Re: A Reeves drive? Not really.

Arch

>Ruth the mechanically operated stepless speed controls that I used in making and packageing lab reagents all worked by changing the size ratio of a drive pulley to a driven pulley. I know of several makes that mostly vary in the way the pulley sizes are made to change. Some moved a drive (motor) pulley away from a driven pulley and the belt forced the pulley to open, but most used a mechanism to open (make the pulley smaller) and the other pulley was closed (Made larger) by a spring. As Russ pointed out the drive mechanism varied among the different manufacturers in method, efficiency and overall cost/quality. I think Reeves invented the concept and Dodge-Reeves is still in business. Browning, Hi-Lo and Woods were also expensive quality drives. There were several other makes, some of lesser quality so as to be cost effective for the machinery that we use. Most turners agree that none work as smoothly and efficiently as modern electronic variable speed controls. If you do change lathes, seriously consider one that uses electronics. The extra you spend on electronic control will be made up by your savings on blood pressure control. Arch

A Reeves drive? Not really.

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