Belt sander tensioning

[Owad]

I'm having difficulty setting the tension on my belt sander, and I'm not sure whether the problem is with the sander or with me not knowing how to use it.

I would guess it's from the 90's. It was given to me by a friend, who used it up until it was put in storage, so if anything went wrong with it. This is the first I've tried to run it since then, so it's very unlikely it was damaged in use.

I cleaned it up a bit, and it looks to be in reasonable condition. After loading a piece of sandpaper, it's my understanding that I'm to turn the handle four times to properly tension it. I'm assuming "four turns" means four full rotations. I can't even do one rotation, before it's too tight to go any further - and it seem far tighter than it should be. Almost as soon as I turn the Shopsmith on, the idler drum drops, losing all tension.

I followed the instructions in this post to lower the upper drum. Now, when I try to tension the drum, it looses tension and drops after about one rotation, as I'm turning it.

I'm pretty certain I don't know what I'm doing. Can anybody help?

[Mike907]

Turning the tension knob four revolutions counterclockwise is to pre-tension the spring. It sounds like yours is already tensioned, so just release the catch and the belt should be properly tensioned.

This may help -

http://www.shopsmithacademy.com/SS_Arch ... Tuneup.htm

You can order a manual here -

http://www.shopsmith.com/ownersite/cata ... sindex.htm

Mike

[Owad]

Thanks! I got caught up in the four revolutions bit. Adjusting the head and turning the knob forward seems to have taken care of the problem.