Foley Belsaw 985 help?

I inherited a F/B 985 from my FIL, with a pile of moulding cutters. Been working OK, but he didn't keep up on maintenance and stuff, so I've been tuning it up and getting it back to 100%.

One big problem I'm having, and not finding any help: The V belt that runs from the cutterhead and transfers to the feed roller sprockets is very loose. The belt is not dry rotted or frayed, just loose. The manual says to "adjust" it but I dont see any adjustments, and it doesn't give any further info on it.

The replacing of the belt is not intuitiavely obvious either. Looks like the whole shooting match has to come apart to even loop another belt over it.

Does anyone have any experience with this machine and with this issue? Would really appreciate some guidance. Thanks.

ugh, was really hoping someone would jump on this and save me from trial and error.....

I took the belt off of the pulley. The pulley has 4 bolts that connect 1 side to the other, and in between there are 5 washers on each bolt (creating the width of the pulley slot).

If I removed 2 washers from each bolt, would this "skinny up" my pulley, making the belt ride higher on the pulley, thus tightening the belt?

Neither the pulley, nor the cutterhead shaft (which drives the belt), is moveable. The only way I can see to make the belt tighter is to increase the diamter of the pulley.

?

Sounds good to me. Same as my VW alternator pulley. I was going to go over and see a machine a friend has and check it out tomorrow.

Yes. Thats the way the belt is adjusted. Remove washers.

My 12" was the same way.

Some parts are still available if you need something else.

http://www.belsaw.com/


One problem those machines had is if debris built up under the outfeed roller brass bushings/holder, the outfeed roller would stay up high, causing the last 4-6" of molding to get completely trashed, shooting the material out after it comes past the cutter head.
Take a pry bar and raise each feedroller end up and clean the junk out under those bushings.
Also keep those bushings oiled. Just a drop or 2 on each end of the bushing while the machine is running.

Thanks, that is exactly what I did and it feeds like a champ!!