I am in the process of converting my hand wrapper to a power wrapper. I have the motor and pedal. I am in the process of buying the chuck and stand and need to know the following. When calculating the distance from the motor pulley to the drive wheel on the chuck stand, how tight should the belt (O Ring) be so it doesnt slip nor does it break from being too tight ? Thank you.

All you want is for a snug connection. Too tight and you'll wear out the bushing on the front of the motor. Too loose and it'll slip, although most such O-ring drive "belts" are fairly slip resistant. Just snug, not tight.

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Frank,
When you build your power stand, you need to make the mount holding the motor adjustable, so that you can make the belt loose or tight at the turn of a bolt. Sometimes you might pick up a different belt, or belts age and change length. So, do not build the power stand so that you can not adjust the motor mounting position with respect to the chuck head stock.

Also, rather than using a rubber 0 ring, consider the use of a cogged belt.

By using a cogged belt, you can have the belt quite loose with minimal bearing and motor drag and still have no belt slippage.

Here is an example of a power unit using a cogged belt.

[www.rodbuilding.org]

Also, in this particular example, the motor is a DC gear motor with an output shaft that is not in the center of the motor. As a result of the shaft offset, the motor can be rotated in the motor mount to adjust the belt tightness.

Good luck
Roger

After reading Roger's response I'm ashamed to say I didn't bother to mention that many just use a hinge on the back of the headstock to hang their motor from. The weight of the motor will generally properly load the belt.

However, we'd be talking about a belt, not an O-ring in that instance. When using the O-ring style connection, a hanging motor will jump and skip. You have to mount the motor in place to make use of an O-ring drive.

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Thanks guys. Rodger, where would I find the cog belts and pulleys for the drive?

Frank,
Many industrial supply houses have these belts and pulleys.
Also, you can go an on line search for the same items.

[www.grainger.com]

[www.grainger.com]

[www.google.com]


[www.econobelt.com]

Roger

Thank You Roger !