click - click - click sound
#7
This post is more a PSA, than anything else.

After a rather nasty catch and the bowl landed on the other side of the shop. My lathe had a .... "click - click - click.... " sound. I almost couldn't hear it, so it was NOT loud at all. But, it bothered me.

So, I checked the lathe over, as best I know how. Couldn't find anything loose or broken. Everything looked fine. But the sound continued.

I pulled out the manual, to check over a few things, which didn't help. The belt looks fine. However, with each revolution (only when it is running), the sound continued.

I decided to pull the belt off to check the pulley's. That is fine... however I noticed a tiny, very tiny black mark on the groove of the pulley. Now.. my pulley's have 5 or 6 grooves in it for the belt, which of course, have the 5 or 6 corresponding grooves for this pulley.

I grabbed the nearby compass, to nudge out this debris.

It was the cause of the clicking sound. A tiny (small as sawdust) piece of the belt, that seized onto the groove in the pulley.

For what it's worth for you guys.
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#8
Thanks for posting that. A lot of people look down on posting about small things.
I don't. You may well have prevented something worse from happening.
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#9
One of the many reasons why listening to "tunes" while turning doesn't appeal to me. The click of the tool moving past a new-found crack, the loosening of a setscrew or misalignment in a belt is pretty easy to miss if it has to fight with other background.

I got my 3000 used, and the guy hadn't read the manual, so he ran the first rib of the belt in the first, not second groove on the pulley. Remaining space to next level being insufficient, the belt had worn itself a frayed edge which troubled me until I changed my first rpm setting. Made a growling noise like a bad bearing.

Yes, I cussed myself for relying on his representation of condition, and even put my stethoscope on the quiet bearing before I went beyond in my search.
Better to follow the leader than the pack. Less to step in.
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#10
MidwestMan said:

This post is more a PSA, than anything else.

After a rather nasty catch and the bowl landed on the other side of the shop. My lathe had a .... "click - click - click.... " sound. I almost couldn't hear it, so it was NOT loud at all. But, it bothered me.

So, I checked the lathe over, as best I know how. Couldn't find anything loose or broken. Everything looked fine. But the sound continued.




Thank you for posting this - I've had the *exact* same thing with my Delta 46-460 and it's been driving me nuts! Haven't been able to figure out what it might be, but never thought to check for debris in the pulley grooves. I'm going down into the shop shortly & will look when I do... hopefully, it's just that easy to fix.
"I'm glad being trapped in the woods hunted by an insane militia made you ask the big life questions."

Check out my Project Blog
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#11
I know what you mean, it really annoyed me also.

Let us know how it works out.
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#12
Update - I blew out the pulleys, but the noise continued. After a bit, I turned the drive belt inside out (Delta 46-460 has a multi-channel drive belt) and looked in the valleys of the belt, finding tiny little black metallic-looking bits of some kind of crap. I removed them and it's running smooth again. Don't know what it is, how it got there, or when it arrived, but it's gone now.
"I'm glad being trapped in the woods hunted by an insane militia made you ask the big life questions."

Check out my Project Blog
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