Quote Originally Posted by Kip View Post
Is the backgear on an eccentric and driven by a flat belt with a locking pin(flathead screw) to engage half speed? I thought I saw the locking "pin" in your second picture, I had a machine of this "ilk" 15yrs ago and sold it to a grasstracker 4 years ago and learned to speak Mandarin (bought a Chinese lathe) Why would reducing the OD of the shaft and then fitting "sized" bearings increase any other clearance between gears? I could understand if it were a case of replacing central bearings with offset bearings....I'm confused help me out.
It wouldn't... what I said was that if I ground the spindle down I'd have to bush the bullgear and the pulleys and the backgear pinion as they all run on the spindle. I couldn't just grind down the journals as then the centre of the shaft wouldn't pass through the bearings.

And yes the backgear is exactly like that, except the ratio is 6.67:1!

Can't comment on the Chinese as never owned one, but from what I've seen and read give me some serious old iron any day :)