Reeves Drive Is Alive

[Renegade1LI]

So grizzly has a new drill press with a reeves drive. And to make it even better the reeves drive has a low and high speed. Me personally I love a reeves drive, I have two pm1150s and a pm and they all work great when clean and serviced. I would definitely by this DP if I was in the market for one, also has some other nice features.

17" Floor Variable-Speed Drill Press at Grizzly.com

<h1>T33961 17" Variable-Speed Floor Drill Press</h1> <h2>Perform precision drilling with this efficient variable-speed floor drill press.</h2> <p>The T33961 Floor Drill Press is the perfect choice if you need a well-equipped machine to enhance your drilling processes.</p> <p>The Reeves drive...

www.grizzly.com

 

[seber]

I too love reeves drives but they do need to be kept up. Too often they get left at one speed and never touched. Once frozen they are just about impossible to get working right again.

 

[bwringer]

OK, I'll bite: what's a Reeves drive? Some sort of snowmobile-style variable-speed belt drive thing, I gather?

 

[dscheidt]

OK, I'll bite: what's a Reeves drive? Some sort of snowmobile-style variable-speed belt drive thing, I gather?

variable diameter pulley drive system, giving a continuous range of speed control. They were used on a number of drill presses because it's a pain to fiddle with belts, and also for other machines (saws, lathes, etc). They went out of ashion because they're mechanically complex and fiddly. Electronic speed control fills most of the niche on machines these days.

 

[Renegade1LI]

Having a few late 70s early 80s machines with reeves drive that still work great with probably very little maintenance. I've removed them, cleaned them put on new belts and they just work. I thought it interesting that grizzly is bringing them back. I wonder if they transmit more power at slow rpms compared to an inverter powered machine? Maybe just cheaper?

 

[seber]

Inverter drives transmit constant torque. So the slower you go the less actual power you have available. Belt drives multiply torque when you reduce the speed. Essentialy giving constant power.

 

[Cooter Brown]

I have a Powermatic model 160 planer from 1968 that was well used when I got it, and it's been used a lot since. The Reeves drive works like a champ. It's fun to pull the cover and demonstrate it to someone who's never seen a Reeves drive in action.

The ingenuity and just plain common sense of our forebears is wonderful to see in action.

 

[Firebrick43]

Inverter drives transmit constant torque. So the slower you go the less actual power you have available. Belt drives multiply torque when you reduce the speed. Essentialy giving constant power.

The question is does it matter?

We retrofitted (5) series 2 bridgeports(4hp heads) to inverter drives. 3 were done as part of a 2 axis CNC upgrade/machine overhaul in the toolroom and 2 were standard manual control machines. We used 12 groove poly Vee (serpentine) belts and sheaves.

No one missed the reeves drives torque, in fact was always commented on how much quieter they were without it.

Tapping was much better with the inverter as well compared to the original tapping controls on the series 2

They liked the powermatic drill we converted as well removing the original reeves drive. It gained the tapping function that it didn’t have

 

[slowtwitch73]

My Doall bandsaw has one, power feed on Millrite has one, old Boxford lathe had one... has been used in many many applications for years.

 

[dutchgray]

The question is does it matter?

We retrofitted (5) series 2 bridgeports(4hp heads) to inverter drives. 3 were done as part of a 2 axis CNC upgrade/machine overhaul in the toolroom and 2 were standard manual control machines. We used 12 groove poly Vee (serpentine) belts and sheaves.

No one missed the reeves drives torque, in fact was always commented on how much quieter they were without it.

Tapping was much better with the inverter as well compared to the original tapping controls on the series 2

They liked the powermatic drill we converted as well removing the original reeves drive. It gained the tapping function that it didn’t have

Depends if the application needs the torque multiplication of an actual reduction ratio you get from a reeves drive or if the inverter variable speed is enough.

 

[dutchgray]

My Doall bandsaw has one, power feed on Millrite has one, old Boxford lathe had one... has been used in many many applications for years.

I was given a DoAll band saw because the reeves drive is broken on it supposedly, need to fix it sometime.