Noise in old lathes

[OldWood]

Has anyone investigated quite why the old style of lathe with the motor at the foot of a pedestal and a long belt to the headstock are so noisy and what can be done to reduce it ?

Now it may well be that the two old lathes I have contact with - a Graduate and a Wadkins BZL - are bad examples, but I do wonder if the long belt and the large area of CI work together to create noise, and if anyone has experimented with say filling part of the main pedestal with sound absorbing material like in loudspeakers.

The club lathes are modern in line motor ones (can't remember the make a the moment) and are whisper quiet.

Thanks for any ideas

OW

 

[cornucopia]

i'm not familar with those model's but i imagine your right and its a mixture of belt noise,lack of mass and bearing's- if you try to improve them do one thing at a time and that way you'll know when you've hit the jackpot

 

[CHJ]

I guess the the construction could be providing some resonant enhancement, I think the long Vee belts together with any slight mis-alignment/run-out of the pulleys are the basic generators and of course if the motors are not acoustically de-coupled then any bearing noises could be contributing to any "sound box" effect.

Running the motor without the belt fitted would determine the latter.

Lathes and machines in general using flat Poly Vee belts usually run much quieter, possibly because of tighter control of the pulley machining tolerances and less Vee geometry induced noises.

Without understanding the full implications as to how and why they still work effectively under normal loads I find that Vee Belt drives quieten down considerably if lubricated with dry (PTFE) lubricant. The only machine I have ever come across that required the use of a lubricant specifically designed to give maximum belt grip was one where the motor was high power (10hp+) and for some obscure reason (possibly poor initial design) did not have a ramped soft start. That just played a tune on the building bus-bar system when starting.