Headstock Is Hot

[dusty]

My SS is working fine. In fact, we have been working it hard. Actually, we have been working it continuously for three days. But we are working with clear pine (no hardwood). Also, we are in an open, outdoor shop, in full morning sun and the temperatures have been in the 100s.

The headstock is soooo hot. You can't leave your hand on it.

Is this normal?

I've never worked my machine this hard and I don't have a point of reference. Usually, I do small crafts sort of things where the SS is on a bit, off a bit all day long. No continuous hours of cutting.

[rdewinter]

Dusty, I've spent several hours cutting a lot of raised panels and stopped dados in the edge of rails and stiles in "not so dry" pine. A lot of pitch and sap like substance stuck to the blade after a while, and I noticed how much the ss labored. The headstock did get really hot, so I gave it a cooling off period throughout the day and sprayed the ss brand of saw cleaner on the blade.
I think the cool down periods and the saw cleaner really helped as I have no long term damage.
I was, however, in my garage and not in the direct sun. That has to make a difference.

[Ed in Tampa]

My SS is working fine. In fact, we have been working it hard. Actually, we have been working it continuously for three days. But we are working with clear pine (no hardwood). Also, we are in an open, outdoor shop, in full morning sun and the temperatures have been in the 100s.

The headstock is soooo hot. You can't leave your hand on it.

Is this normal?

I've never worked my machine this hard and I don't have a point of reference. Usually, I do small crafts sort of things where the SS is on a bit, off a bit all day long. No continuous hours of cutting.

Dusty
I have a pool pump that is just circulating water through the pool filter systems and it gets hot. So yes a motor will get hot, now figure in friction generated by the belts, pulleys and bearings and you have a lot of heat inside a closed headstock and you can build up heat.

I was concerned about the temperature of my SS in area right behind the quill. This is the area of the drive sleeve with it's bearings and the poly belt. It got hot enough to catch my attention. This was when my machine was brand new so I called SS they told me not to worry about it.

Now some 20 years later it is still hot enough to bother me. So I tilted my machine into drill press mode and I put more than a few drops of very light weight oil around the bearing and let it set there for a while. I then turned the machine on at the slowest speed and let the oil work into the bearings. It seemed to help greatly. To me it made a difference, I did this about a year ago and I now make it one of the things I do in my regular maintaince.

That said I still find the headstock does get very warm/hot. Like I said I have a basically a free wheeling pool pump circulating water and if you touch the housing it is hot. So some heat is normal. Motors, belts, pulleys, bearings etc all generate heat.

If I was you I would blow out any dust and now that your aware of the heat try giving the machine time to cool down, perhaps a morning coffee break, lunch and afternoon break.
Ed

[john]

I also noticed that my headstock was hot after cutting several dados in oak . I didn't remember feeling this before so kept an eye (hand) on it for other lighterweight operations and found it did not heat-up excessively so I attributed the heat to the job at the time though I did make a note to perform some maintenance brfore starting my next project.

John

[james.miller]

Has anyone measured the temperature when it gets hot? It might be nice to know what is OK and what is too hot. Harbor Freight has non contact thermometers on sale occasionally, maybe I will get one for this.

If oil on the bearings helps then I would probably change the bearings, it's a reasonably easy job.

Jim in Tucson

[sambofl]

For those of you who have been keeping up on my restoration I just finished changing out all the throat bearings mainly because they were causing the rest of the SS to heat up so much that I couldn't even touch the SS casing. I called a buddy and he told me to replace those and to oil the bearings at least every 15 uses, which only takes a couple minutes to do. Since then I have had no problems. I also replaced all the main bearings and rusted out parts and now oil and service the SS every 15-20 uses. But mine is older than most so I might have to. I also blow out all the wood shavings and dust that collects in the case after awhile as well.

[Bruce]

Also, we are in an open, outdoor shop, in full morning sun and the temperatures have been in the 100s.

When I want to remove the sanding disc from my disc sander, I leave it sit out in the sun with the dark side up. It doesn't take long for the sun to heat it until it's too hot to pick up without gloves. So I'd say adding the heat of the sun to the heat from the motor is probably not too good for your SS. Is there any way to get it shaded?

Bruce

[charlese]

Dusty - I saw that the high temp in Tucson yesterday was 108. You probably noticed, later in the day, that even the floating tables were hotter than your hands.

When we were down in South Texas, at temps over 100, the SS and all metal in my garage would feel hot to the touch before they were even turned on, because the ambient temperature stayed high. Needless to say, the shopsmith headstock got hotter with use. Witnessed the same phenomenon in Palmdale, CA in a fully shaded, but open garage.

If a person works the SS at temps in the 60s, the top of the headstock will heat up quite warm after extended work. Add forty to fifty degrees to the start of that heat and you have real hot machines.

You shouldn't worry too much as it seems you are pretty darn good with maintenance!

Haven't had that experience here in Lancaster because the shop has an A/C. Since the outside temp cools down to the high 50s to mid 60s at night, the machines are cool in the A.M. (Yesterday was 105 and last night 62.)

Try one of those swamp coolers on wheels. They are called Shop Coolers. I used one the first year here, but the A/C worked better. Sold my portable swamp cooler at a garage sale. The guy who bought it is cooling his small garage shop.

[robg]

I am surprised to see nobody even mentioning the belt tension that is adjusted during common maintenance procedures. Yes, the unit will probably get hot anyway and it might not even be related, but make sure you have the right belt tension. A slightly slipping belt will generate a lot of heat.

[dusty]

robg

You could very well be right on. My Shopsmith is old and is still running on the original set of belts.

This is the first time in a long while that the SS has gotten such an intensive work out. My extreme heat problem may be, at least in part, due to belt slippage.

However, yesterday I was able to confirm what has been suggested by others in this thread. Natural heat buildup from the sun was undoubtedly a factor. I had not run the SS yesterday, at all, when I touched the headstock. It was too hot to leave my hand on it.

The SS is undercover but during the first half of the day it is in direct sunlight if the garage door is open. I'm going to hang some sort of awning from the facia to put it in shade.