Adjsuting belt tension - ShopFox Jointer 1741 hassle

[Rick Gifford]

SLAP:BANG! everytime it started. Looked through the forums and read that tightening the belt will help, preventing it from slapping the belt cover.

I stood behind the jointer and started it, sure enough the noise was from the belt cover.

Geez, and I thought I got that belt tight when I did the original adjustments and alignment.

Now to get that thing tight proper.

The motor is mounted to two, over and under, horizontal cross bars with slots. Move the motor along these slots for alignment of pullies. These cross bars are mounted to two vertical rungs, slotted for adjustments.

So whats the hassle? Loosen at the vertical points and the motor rear end, being the heaviest drops. The shaft end with the pully only drops so far due to the belt holding it up. Now reaching back in there and lifting back up on that motor is a major pain! Have to use a peice of wood to wedge off the floor and hammer back to drive the rear end of the motor back up to horizontal. Like driving a wall stud into place at an angle.

I look this over, amd I doing this wrong I think to myself... no, only so much you can do.

Push down on the pully end to get tension on that belt. Can't push down enough with just one arm keeping the other free with wrench to tighten. Don't have any help, so this has to be done as a one man job.

Improvise. Thats the answer!

Cut a peice of 2X4 to fit across the bottom casing lip. This will give me a place for one end of the clamp to work off of. The other end will work on one of the horizontal bars. But theres not enough clearance under the 2X4 for full operation of the clamps.

Fine.

Lift each end of the jointer up onto scrap lumber about 4" off the floor. I have now created a jointer lift

Clamp does great! Got that belt just right. But I had to cut a new peice of wood to wedge the motors rear end up to horizontal again (other peice wont work with the new "jointer lift" in place).

Have to hammer that bastard in place to drive the heavy motor end back up. Got it. Looks great. Level agrees. Belt perfect. Alignment dead on.

Stripped a bolt.

@*$@#*&^&&*@!!!!

What crappy bolts. Dear Lord you'd think putting good bolts at this location wouldn't be that much trouble!

Off to the borg. Return with stainless bolts and nuts. These will hold!

Finish the job and the jointer starts and runs smooth.

Haven't done the nickle test yet.

Moral of the story? Get help. If you do this solo plan to improvise.

And put good bolts on down there. Stock are junk.

[Steve Leverich]

Rick, had almost the identical problems putting my PM54 together last month. If it'd taken another hour to get things lined up I'd probably STILL be re-designing the motor mounts for individual adjusters for side and end travel.

One of the crap lock washers on mine broke in half right off, tearing up the crappy threads on the equally crappy motor base bolt. They were metric but close enough to 5/16 for a handful of grade 8 hardware to fit. Arghhh!! Steve

[Tom Ruflin]

Rick,

I just went through the same thing with my G0490. I used a clamp to pull down on the pulley side of the motor and another clamp that reverses to push to lift the other side of the motor to align it. I don't know how to post a link by I just posted my saga today, see "Grizzly G0490 gloat/saga".
I also had the same problem with breaking a cheap bolt, fortunatly I found one that fit in my junk pile.

[Tom Maple]

Here's a different twist to the same problem. My Shop Fox 1741 version of this jointer has the slap upon start-up but there is no means of tightening the belt!
The adjustment slots in the vertical supports are not continuous. There is a slot of 2", then 1/2" of metal, then a round hole, another 1/2" of metal and then another slot. This is repeated for the lower horizontal motor support. If the horizontal motor support bolt is put in the upper slot the belt is too loose. The lower slot can not be used because of belt length. So, the motor bolt is in the round hole, between the slots. Obviously there is not much adjustment in a round hole!
I just went out to the barn/shop to make sure I was explaining this accurately.
Any others with this problem?

[Rick Gifford]

Wow Tom that is messed up.

Sounds like the verticle bars weren't cut right for mounting and the slots/holes end up in the wrong area.

I think I would grind out the bottom of the bolt hole so it connects with the slot below it, creating a longer lower slot. Then you can tension the belt.

Pretty sad any modification is necessary but what can you do at this point, other than replacing the belt with a longer one that gets you down into the lower slot.

[Tom Maple]

Rick,
I think that's probably what I'll do, lengthen the slot into the hole. I don't want to go with a longer belt because that will cause even more "slap".
Tom

[Steve Leverich]

Tom, in your case I think I'd get a link belt, move the motor to the upper slots, and find the right combo of # of links to put you somewhere near the middle of the upper slot. That way no grinding (which might weaken the unit) and smoother running from using the link belt... Steve

[Tom Ruflin]

Tom, what Steve says - get a link belt 4 feet long by 1/2 inch. I pick one up at woodcraft for around $30. Not only will it solve your ability to tension it properly, it will also reduce vibrations while running.