[footfootfoot]

Yeah the motor is on a hinged board and its weight creates the tension. One plus is that it is a lot safer; the belt will slip if anything really grabs hold. Downside is,iIt won't prevent a catch from ruining a piece and it does vibrate a bit.

I'm thinking of tightening it to eliminate the vibration.

Classic, you will get hooked if you try wood turning. My teacher had us spend almost 8 weeks on spindle work before we moved to bowl turning. At that point everyone saw god. The teacher told us if he'd taught us bowl work first we'd never bother to learn spindle turning.