How does a lathe gearbox work?
Given that, though, I’ve never seen a gearbox on a wood lathe. Wood lathes use belt drive for two reasons, the most important being safety–if you get a catch, a workpiece on a belt driven lathe won’t damage you as badly as a workpiece on a gear-driven lathe. Also, belt drive won’t feed vibration from the workpiece back into the motor and damage the bearings. Gear drive is used on metal lathes.
