Posted by David Sherman on Monday, April 23, 2007 at 00:16:33 :
In Reply to: COTM will soil himself when he sees this! posted by APB on SI on Sunday, April 22, 2007 at 20:46:00 :
Looks like a Rockwell rear axle driving the wheel, with the right-hand axle tube cut off. They must have either welded the cut-off shaft to the cover plate on that side, or they welded up the differential gears, because that's an open differential. Tires make pretty decent drive pulleys for flat belts, due their being naturally crowned and having plenty of friction, but that's the first time I've seen a tire with grooves cut into it for a rope drive. I made a V-belt drive pulley out of a solid-rubber lawn mower tire once by cutting a groove in it on a wood lathe, but as I remember, it didn't work too good. I think it was one of those cases where I needed something in a hurry on a weekend.