Raining here today. So I had some time on my hands to fix a nagging intermittent problem(I hope!) got a seeder drive belt jumping off every once in a while, due to a small diameter idler that runs on the back side of a belt. Every once inna while, it hops off the idler, always along the outside edge, so I figgered i'd build up that outside rim, some kinda way. Rooted through the bushing and washer bin, found a rather odd looking piece of aluminum. About 3/16" larger in diameter than the idler. It had a half diameter piece that needed to be removed, then the whole thing needed to be turned down, so's it would nest inside the pulley, with just a lip, sticking over the rim of the idler's rim. Anyway, this thing also had 3 1/4" holes already drilled through the thickness, evenly spaced, so I could drill through the pulley, to mount it. More on that, later...
Turned the hump off the piece and got it to nest into the pulley, but the pulley's bearing stuck out about 1/4" so I thought, WTH, I'll bore the center out, a little to accommodate. Went up to the other lathe to borrow the boring bar, bring it back down, MT3, this one's MT1 or 2! Crap, now what? Turnt the tool post removed the bit, looked, other end was ground on the bottom side, enough to use it in the tool post, as a boring bit, so that problem is overcome! Got it bored, fit nice and tight lip snug to the side of the idler. Now back to them 3 holes, checked, they just fit on the 1/4" flat area of the idler pulley, between the bearing and outer lip of the pulley. OK, but man this 2 piece spot welded idler is thin, my guess 1/8-3/16" thick where I wanted to drill the bolts through! Also that flat spot is so thin, if you put ANY bolt through, you'd never get a nut in behind the pulley!
OK, so thread it, fine, of course. Found 3 #10 fine thread bolts, that might do the job, put the piece I made in place, used the 3 holes in it as a template, started al 3 with a 1/4" bit, to mark the spots to drill, used a 5/32" to drill the holes, cause that's what I had handy! Anyway My eyes ain't as good they usedta be, so All I knew about the bolts I had, was that they was 32 tpi, so went over to the other shop, got 2 taps, 1 a # 8 and the other a #10. tapped with #8, too small, GRRR. Didn't even drill out the holes, just tapped right through with #10 screw. Put bolts in, a curly red hair too short, GRR, again! walked over to the other shop, again hunted for longer bolts, found some, you guessed it, #10, but 24 tpi! Grr, again! Threaded to 24 tpi, bolts are just a tad loose, so I locktighted them in! Anyway Mr Murphy sure was in my shirt-pocket today, as all of this crap made a 1 hour job into 4! Glad that this particular piece aint a high speed, powered something critical! If the worst happens, I can at least go buy some #12 bolts, and re-thread!
Oh, and the lathe worked flawlessly!
The idler pulley, in question:
https://www.tractorsupply.com/tsc/p...idler-pulley-3-8-in-bore-2-in-od?cm_vc=-10005
