Pulley Keeps Falling Off

[cottoncreek]

Maybe something did screw onto the threaded part of the shaft such as a jam nut which would be tightened after the set screw was tightened. Look around or under your machine to see if a nut you never before noticed is lying around.

[pcox]

You have an old singer clutch motor. The pulley you have is not correct for this motor/clutch setup. The pulley you need has splines that slide onto the splined shaft and a pair of jam nuts to hold it on. If you persist on running this pulley you will destroy the threads on the shaft if that has not already happened. I would guess that the threads have worn down and the pulley is not snug on the shaft allowing the pulley to wobble a little, working it's self loose. All of this type motor that I have seen are 3000 plus rpm which is not what you want to sew leather. You have 3 choices. Continue as you are not a good choice, or find the correct pulley, replace the motor/clutch unit.

[pcox]

these pictures may help. I think this is the same as yours. The rpm is 3,500 way too fast for leather work

[mathbishop]

The top pulley is giant so that helps with the crazy speed. Im going to see if I can track down the older pulley.

I have a feeling when the pulley fell off additional parts may have fell with it. Im gonna do some hunting for that as well

[oltoot]

Something I have noticed over time dealing with pulleys and belts in general, after all the good leads above are checked, if the first time the pulley came loose you didn't get it back in exact alignment with its opposing pulley, the force on it is tremendously increased, exacerbating any other issues. It is especially true if you dealing with two pulleys of diff size and then the smaller pulley takes the beating. Solution Sometimes: If the pulley/shaft allows, put the pulley back on without tightening then run things for just a bit allowing them to "find home" then carefully tighten to avoid moving. Unfortunately doesn't usually help if shaft or pulley are already damaged. Another thing I have learned about sewing machines (and other machinery) that resists efforts to 'tweak' it. If time allows walk away and do something else that you are sure you will succeed at then come back to it.

[Gregg From Keystone Sewing]

I had to save the original picture, open it in Photoshop, and lighten the image to see what is going on. Here is the pulley type with Singer part numbers. You should be able to find them pretty easily.

[Gregg From Keystone Sewing]

I had to save the original picture, open it in Photoshop, and lighten the image to see what is going on. Here is the pulley type with Singer part numbers. You should be able to find them pretty easily. My Dad when he started was 16 years old, and he rebuilt these 59 & 69 class motors for almost a year, not much else. He would press new bearings in, have the motors sent out to have them rewound, everything. This is all he did at his old shop where he worked for Danny Burg at Ace Sewing for his first year, he was there for about 15 years. Obviously, I'm taking it back a ways here, for sure. But, that's how old these motors are. BTW, you can guess what motor we have, still, up under our test bench, still.

[mathbishop]

This is great, do you know any good recourses where I might be able to buy the 4" pulley. Larger = Slower right?

-MB

[pcox]

Wrong. A larger motor pulley will speed your machine up.

[mathbishop]

Wrong. A larger motor pulley will speed your machine up.

Good to know, thanks