# Jig : Groove in wooden pulley



## steamingbill (Jan 13, 2013)

Hello,

I am wondering about making wooden pulleys to run A section belts - I dont have a lathe - easy enough to cut wheels with table saw.

Pulleys 2" to 6"

Was wondering about mounting the wheel on an inclined flat plane so that either a router or a table saw could cut the groove.

See sketch

At the moment am thinking that the entire jig would slide past the cutting tool then the wheel would be turned incrementally and repeat as many times as necessary.

Final trim and tidy with sandpaper

Anything obviously stupid or dangerous about this ?

Any smarter or easier ways - my saw does not tilt - that's why I need the inclined plane to hold the wheel.

The pulleys are for the shop notes lathe in issue 73 - probably red gum or some other hardwood. Aluminium pulleys quite expensive and am on a budget.

Bill


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## jw2170 (Jan 24, 2008)

Hi Bill.

Firstly, could you please update your profile so we can see what saw and router you have for this task.

Do you have a router table?

Secondly, I would cut the wheels with a router circle jig, not on the table saw.

There is more than one way to skin a cat, as you know........


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## steamingbill (Jan 13, 2013)

*Jig : Groove in pulley*



jw2170 said:


> Hi Bill.
> 
> Firstly, could you please update your profile so we can see what saw and router you have for this task.
> 
> ...


Jim,

Thanks for reply. Have updated profile.

Attached are photos of my first attempt this morning - on an old piece of pine - sorry about the previous cruddy drawing.

You will get the idea from the photographs.

I will tidy the groove by cutting a piece of wood to the same profile as the belt and contact cement some sandpaper to it to make a file.

I will have another go now using a router - whilst the using the saw did work it made me think the router is a better tool for both parts of the job. 

Bill


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## jw2170 (Jan 24, 2008)

Hi Bill.

The way you have cut the grooves will work, but I would use a cove bit in the route table with a similar jig holding the wheel vertically. 

How did you cut the wheels? There seems to be a bit of burning?


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## steamingbill (Jan 13, 2013)

jw2170 said:


> Hi Bill.
> 
> The way you have cut the grooves will work, but I would use a cove bit in the route table with a similar jig holding the wheel vertically.
> 
> How did you cut the wheels? There seems to be a bit of burning?


Thanks Jim,

I cut the wheel with the makita tpower saw in the triton table.

Put a vertical pin in the tabletop 6" away from blade, mounted the blank on the pin and just kept sliding it down the table, chopping all of the corners off until it was round then turned it continuously against the saw blade to get the very last of the little tiny corners and make it "rounder".

Do the burn marks mean that I did something wrong ? Am quite ignorant of many things hence I have come here for answers.

Bill


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## jw2170 (Jan 24, 2008)

steamingbill said:


> Thanks Jim,
> 
> I cut the wheel with the makita tpower saw in the triton table.
> 
> ...


Not really anything wrong, Bill.

It just means your blade was rubbing against the timber for a while.


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## neville9999 (Jul 22, 2010)

Bill there is nothing wrong with your concept, I have made many jigs where the workpiece is put on the jig and rotated near a cutter or a saw blade, the rotation will give you a perfect circle and you just have to decide how much trouble you want to go to, If all I want is one of any item, then I only allow a limed amount of time in the Jig construction, I only spend a lot of time if I am going to make a hundred of them or if I want to use the Jig a few more times into the future, with this type of Jig then I sometimes put the rotation point on a slide that lets me creep it up to the saw/cutter and by doing that then you can limit the depth of cut for each rotation and move it in to get the circumference you want, of course by using a table saw you can raise the saw up a bit to increase the depth of cut, it would not be that hard to make a special base plate for a router where the workpiece could rotate on a pin and the pin was on a slide that let it creep up closer to the cutter as it rotated, just be careful with your fingers as you only get issued with ten and router speed is faster than a speeding bullet. NGM


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## Leifs1 (Dec 16, 2009)

Why not just use a router circle jig and cut 2 wheels, camfer one edge on both and glue and scrue them 2 together ?
Just my 2 cents.
Regards Leif


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## steamingbill (Jan 13, 2013)

Leifs1 said:


> Why not just use a router circle jig and cut 2 wheels, camfer one edge on both and glue and scrue them 2 together ?
> Just my 2 cents.
> Regards Leif


Yes Leif I could have done that. Because of the specific angle involved some sort of tilting jig would still be necessary.

Had to start somewhere and am more comfortable with saws than with routers so started off with saw option. - will try router next.

Bill


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## dutchman 46 (May 23, 2007)

What will be the use of the belt pulley? I am asking because if You are making a working belt pulley, I would use a different wood than pine. I would also try to keep it for slower speeds! Another thing for You to try, Look for a used iron and steel place, or even E-bay. This should get You into a regular aluminum pulley. Also a lawn mower shop might scrap out belt pullies. I am not getting You to use other pullies neccessarly, I am mensioning this as a cheaoper way to get a pulley  You might need to pin the pully for strengh to the shaft,rather than useing the normal keyway!


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## steamingbill (Jan 13, 2013)

*Use of Pulley*



dutchman 46 said:


> What will be the use of the belt pulley? I am asking because if You are making a working belt pulley, I would use a different wood than pine. I would also try to keep it for slower speeds! Another thing for You to try, Look for a used iron and steel place, or even E-bay. This should get You into a regular aluminum pulley. Also a lawn mower shop might scrap out belt pullies. I am not getting You to use other pullies neccessarly, I am mensioning this as a cheaoper way to get a pulley  You might need to pin the pully for strengh to the shaft,rather than useing the normal keyway!


Hey Dutchman,

Thanks for reply.

Initial pine pulley was to test jig and see what would go wrong.

Final Pulley will be Australian Red Gum - a hardwood

Pulley will be spinning at 1425 rpm and driving a nested pulley on a lathe.

Have lots of time and little money so I will follow up on your idea about lawn mower shops.

Bill


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## bobj3 (Jan 17, 2006)

Hi 

How about using a one part of the router bit set below

2 PC 1 2" SH Wedge Joint Tongue Groove Router Bit Set | eBay

===


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## steamingbill (Jan 13, 2013)

bobj3 said:


> Hi
> 
> How about using a one part of the router bit set below
> 
> ...


Thanks Bob thats quite a neat bit.

Bill


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## malb (Sep 15, 2008)

Personally I would be a bit concerned about timber Vbelt pulleys for a couple of reasons.

Wood is prone to expansion and shrinkage movement, and moves much more accross the grain than along the grain. This means that that there is a big chance that a pulley which was perfectly concentric when made, will become oval at times of higher or lower humidity as the timber does not expand/shrink uniformly. One novelty woodturning exercise in OZ is to turn a hat from green timber. The hat is turned to about 1/16in thickness for the hat and brim, quite circular crown and flat across the brim, but as the turned wood dries out over a couple of hours the whole lot distorts to a classic 'Akubra' style hat, ie oval crown and curved brim. Movement in a pulley would be less and slower because it is thicker, but the hat exercise is a good demonstration of wood movement.

V belts need a lot of tension to operate properly, and the tension and V form operate as a wedge to try and split the pulley. Timber is prone to natural flaws, grain etc and quite easily split by these forces.

Timber pulleys were common in days past, but used with flat belts rather than V belts, so the splitting issue did not arise. Smaller diameters were axial formed, ie the grain runs parallel to the supporting spindle, and the rings around the spindle. Larger diameters were composite multipart units with the rim steam bent to semicircular form and supported by spokes and hubs. This style of pulley were operated at low speeds, about 200RPM max.


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## bobj3 (Jan 17, 2006)

Hi Bill

Your Welcome,here's quick jig that you can make and use it on the router table and make it safe to use the bit..

======



steamingbill said:


> Thanks Bob thats quite a neat bit.
> 
> Bill


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## steamingbill (Jan 13, 2013)

This is interesting - see last few pictures in series

Øêèâ èç àëþìèíèÿ

He has cut an aluminium pulley using a similar method and just with woodworking tools.

Bill


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