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Strange Sound From Oneway Motor and or Belt

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I just recently bought a 1998 model Oneway 2436. It is in beautiful condition. I am currently turning a large cedar slice on the outboard side. Every time I start the lathe, a whining sound comes from behind the door. The whine stops when at full speed which is about 300 RPMs. This whine has never happened before, even on some large 18 inch bowls. What is the probable cause of this? My belt isn't very tight as I just use the weight of the 2 HP motor. Is a 2HP motor underpowered for this?
 

Bill Boehme

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Do you have the belt in the low speed range?

How large is the piece that you are turning?

Are you slowly bringing the piece up to speed with the speed control knob?

Does the motor sound OK if you remove the belt?

My WAG is that rapidly ramping a heavy load up to speed might be the cause of the sound. The sound might be coming from the VFD or the belt or the motor. If the steady stare running conditions sound OK then things might be fine.
 

hockenbery

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I have serial #275. I always tighten the belt a bit and lock the motor
There is no benifit to letting the belt slip.
The motor may climb the belt a bit as it tries to get a heavy blank moving if it is not locked down.

Be sure the belt is centerd on both pulleys no belt overhang on either side of the pulleys.
Check the belt for square with the pulley. If out of square the pulleys have gotten mis aligned.
Figure out which pulley needs to move and move it.
Use the smallest pulley on the motor that gives you the speed you need.

There is a bar that pulls out that allows you to put some pressure on the belt by phishing the motor down.
There is also a locking bolt with a spring mounter handle that can be repositioned as you lock the motor.
I put a little downward pressure on the motor then lock it there.

2hp motor will turn a 150lb blank quite easily and not bog down with medium cuts.
A 3hp motor would let you take more aggressive cuts.

Could possibly be a bearing going bad. The noise may appear to come from the motor door.

Call ONEWAY they are pretty good at troubleshooting.
 
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Sorry, I guess I forgot some important details ;). The piece is 28 inches in diameter and is destined to be a large natural edge platter. The belt is in the low range. I had not thought about bringing the piece up slowly. According to the manual, the acceleration time is increased by a few second. To answer both Mike and hockenberry's question, yes the pulleys are aligned. I will try listening to the motor and tightening the belt and report back.
 

Bill Boehme

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I forgot to say it earlier, welcome to the AAW forum, Marshall.

Everybody's idea of "tight" is probably a little different, but here is a simple guideline on setting belt tension ... If you can deflect the belt approximately a half inch either way at the midpoint between the two pulleys then the tension is about as good as it can be done without using special tools to measure tension. This rule of thumb should be satisfactory for either classic V belts or the multi groove J-section belts. Motor manufacturers admonish against high overhung loads ... In other words high belt tension. So do belt manufacturers because it greatly accelerates belt wear and lowers drive train power transfer.

Belts run on the sidewalls of the sheaves. A worn out belt will start running on the bottom of the groove and when that happens there isn't sufficient friction to keep the belt from slipping. It's possible that you are hearing squealing from a worn out belt. Over tightening the belt to compensate is bad for the motor, the pulleys, the bearings, and won't buy you much in delaying the inevitable need to replace the belt anyway.

If you aren't sure about the condition of the belt, here are a couple tests, but first it will need to be removed:
  • Test for a belt that has gotten hard from ozone cracking. This is more common in automotive applicationghfbwws because of high temperatures, but it can happen on shop machines if the belt is very old. Look at the sidewalls to see if there is any indication of glazing. Next, bend the belt backwards as tightly as you can. Do you see any tiny cracks open up when you do that? If so, the belt has become hard from ozone cracking and will no longer have the necessary elasticity to grip the sidewalls without slipping.
  • Bend the belt slight backwards enough to see how it sits in the groove or grooves of the pulley. You should be able to see daylight between the tops of the ribs and the bottom of the groove. If there isn't a visible gap then it's time to replace it.
 

Dennis J Gooding

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I just recently bought a 1998 model Oneway 2436. It is in beautiful condition. I am currently turning a large cedar slice on the outboard side. Every time I start the lathe, a whining sound comes from behind the door. The whine stops when at full speed which is about 300 RPMs. This whine has never happened before, even on some large 18 inch bowls. What is the probable cause of this? My belt isn't very tight as I just use the weight of the 2 HP motor. Is a 2HP motor underpowered for this?


Marshall, I am guessing that you merely need to increase the belt tension. The owner’s manual for my 2 HP Oneway 2436 suggests applying 25 to 50 pounds of force to the tension lever. I had never noticed this bit of info until today when I went looking for it on purpose. Up to now, I have been using probably 5 to 10 pounds force. Even at these levels, I have never heard belt squeal or other signs of slipping except when I accidently left the spindle lock on while starting.

A force of 25 to 50 pounds struck me as high and I wondered how the resulting static belt tension compared to the tension caused by motor torque. Therefore, I calculated the increase in belt tension produced by a motor delivering 2 HP to a 4-inch spindle pulley (the lowest speed range) at an assumed speed of 300 RPM (approximately the max speed in the lowest speed range). The result was 140 pounds. (This actually is a bit of an under-estimate, because the max HP actually occurs at an RPM somewhat less than the max speed.)

By comparison, when you factor in the lever-arm advantage of the tensioning lever and the fact that the resulting force is divided between two sides of the belt, the 50 pound lever force translates into about 32 additional pounds of belt tension. This is fairly small compared to the 140 pounds of tension caused by the motor.
 
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