(super) noob question

[gilgamo]

Low, mid and high, huh? That would appear to match the 3 step pulley, but it's hard to see how that can work. At this point I would suggest: RTFM. If you don't have a manual I bet the internet will produce something.

A bit of online searching on my part suggests your machine is made/sold by Vevor. One youtube video I found was not particularly positive in terms of the build quality, but that's not all that unusual for inexpensive lathes. One potentially valuable insight I garnered from the video was regarding the direction and speed selectors. It apparently is all to easy to turn them too far, which can result in damage to the scarce-as-hen's-teeth gears in there. Apparently Vevor doesn't sell replacements for them......

The comments about build quality suggest that perhaps you are NOT doing anything wrong, maybe the lathe is at fault. Caution: learning experience ahead .

The spindle bore ID is a nice upgrade from the 7x series of lathes from Sieg and Real Bull so I hope you can solve the issues you encounter

The large spindle bore is what made me pick this one. I didn’t buy it from Vevor because they were out of stock but this looks like it came from the same factory.

The manual it came with looks like they just copied it from the manual for similar but not identical models. Found the original file they must have copied online and it has pretty useless instructions on changing the belt. It refers to a tensioning pulley. Not sure if that’s the same as the 3 belt pulley or if it’s not there.

Attached the picture in case someone has better reading comprehension skills than me.

 

[WobblyHand]

The belt originally went there you can see in the picture. There's a mechanism that you can see in this picture taken from the side. There's a bolt going into the side plate and it looks like it connects to some kind of carrier for the pulley. When it's fully tightened it doesn't seem to change anything and then when you loosen it it actually leaves the carrier behind. So it ends up not doing anything.

The last picture is a picture of the bolt in the mechanism.

I'm almost sure this has got to be it but it sure does seem broken or I'm doing it wrong

Shouldn't the nut on the tensioner bolt be tightened against the frame? Can't tell from the photo, but the threads on the tensioner bolt look damaged. Getting a new bolt might fix the problem? (One not made out of butter?) Or the carrier isn't attached to the pulley at all, because a bolt or nut is loose? Maybe if you pull that pulley the problem might be more apparent. These (lower end) lathes can often need a little tender loving care. Hope it's just a loose or munged fastener, because that's easy to fix.

 

[gilgamo]

Found a better picture of what I think is the tensioning mechanism but the bolt in the side of the pulley mount plate doesn’t seem to do anything

 

[WobblyHand]

Found a better picture of what I think is the tensioning mechanism but the bolt in the side of the pulley mount plate doesn’t seem to do anything

In order for that to work, the square nut has to be attached to the pulley axle somehow. Is it?

Then if the steel frame isn't threaded, (for the screw) I'd use a key to hold the screw still, and tighten the nut. At least that is what it looks like from here...

 

[tq60]

It looks like they use cogged belts or timing belts, but non-cogged pulleys.

Running the coggs outside.

Seems backwards.

Sent from my SM-G781V using Tapatalk

 

[Nesse1]

You need to remove the back cover, so you can reach the back side of the hex mechanism holding the intermediate pulley. There should be a nut there holding the pulley. An open end wrench on the square pulley mechanism, tweak the small adjustment screw with nut, and the nut behind the hex, are all needed to get the tension correct.