Is this a problem?

It shouldn’t be a problem. The shaft extends beyond that gear to accommodate the drive pulley(s). They clearly have a pulley on there, and simply cut the excess off. Even if that pulley wasn’t there, some people drive with a flat belt on the fly wheel, and if it’s got the U shaped crank in the middle of that shaft, you can run it with a treadle.

I bet they just got tired of hitting their shin on the now too long shaft and cut it off one day….

The only problem might be if you decided to remove that pulley — it looks like the shaft was cut with a cutting torch so the end is probably pretty irregular and has blobs of steel overlapping the edges of the bore in the pulley, plus the melted and re-frozen steel is probably harder than the rest of the shaft.

Bob

That’s a really good point.

If you need to get through a normal sized doorway, you will need to take that shaft out along with the fly wheel. Typically you would pull that pulley and the pinion behind it off, and leave the fly wheel attached to the shaft.

If you need to do this, confirm that you can before you buy it.

If you need to remove the shaft and the added pulley can be slid a short way toward the pinion gear, you can grind a bevel on the end of the shaft to clear all the rough end off and then the pulley should come off easily.

Bob

Thank you - I have nice big overhead doors on both ends of the move, so I should be ok.