Shopsmith Forums

hdoilcan wrote:I havent finished my first one yet either. My wife and kids are about sick of Shopsmith lol. I was only supposed to purchase one, here is my list so far

1 Greenie
1 Brownie
2 510's
5 500's
2 Mark VII's
2 10ER's
1 10E

1 Power Station
1 Power Stand
1 Double Power Stand
1 OPR (stand alone)

5 Joiners
5 Ban Saws
5 Jig Saws
3 Belt Sanders
1 Scroll Saw
1 SS Compressor

5 Sawsmith RAS's

And tons of other extras.

I started buying extra SS just for the extra accessories and was suppose to sell what I didnt need. Well the basement is full and I havent tried selling anything yet because Im having fun being addicted to buying good deals haha.

Yes, that definitely qualifies as addicted.

Culprit, I have no photo, nor have I had a problem using Fenner belts. But I have heard of problems with accelerated wear on aluminum over the years and the sheaves are bit pricey.

Back in the '90 I had a Delta contractors saw and added one of those kits to reduce vibration by installing a Fenner belt and machined steel pulleys. The guy selling them at the Woodworking Show said the machine pulleys ran truer and wouldn't wear like the aluminum ones with the link belts. That combination definitely reduced vibration.

I have an Harbor Freight link belt (green) on an old 11" JC Penny lathe built by Delta/Rockwell, but it's not been run enough since adding the link belt to see any wear.

Will the link belts run both directions?

I've had several machines with those same holes. I had a phone conversation with Bill Mayo a while back & I believe he mentioned that that's how SS balanced those parts, so unless I'm not recalling that correctly, I wouldn't worry.

The Fenner Power Twist Link Belts have an arrow on them to indicate direction, and the printed instructions that came with it talks to the direction and the arrow. I haven't tried running them backwards, so I can't comment on that, but I'm curious about it since I'm reversing the motor on my other SS. I'll probably go with a v belt on the other one. I'm curious to hear what results Bill has had with the kevlar v belt.

pennview wrote:Culprit, I have no photo, nor have I had a problem using Fenner belts. But I have heard of problems with accelerated wear on aluminum over the years and the sheaves are bit pricey.

Back in the '90 I had a Delta contractors saw and added one of those kits to reduce vibration by installing a Fenner belt and machined steel pulleys. The guy selling them at the Woodworking Show said the machine pulleys ran truer and wouldn't wear like the aluminum ones with the link belts. That combination definitely reduced vibration.

I have an Harbor Freight link belt (green) on an old 11" JC Penny lathe built by Delta/Rockwell, but it's not been run enough since adding the link belt to see any wear.

I have been using link belts on my table saw and belt sander for years. Link Belts reduce vibration in any belt driven machine! Common V-belts develop a "memory" and retain their non-operating shape causing annoying and unnecessary machine vibration. Unlike V-belts, these specially engineered link belts do not develop a "memory", but retain their flexibility for smooth operation. Link Belt is 1/2" wide, easily adjustable and available either by the foot from Woodcraft and others*or in a prepacked 4' length. Includes instructions for use.

I switched around 10 years ago to a link belt on several of my Shopsmiths for due to vibration, availablility and for testing purposes. I found the price at that time for the link belt was around $30 vs $12 for the motor belt. The link belt greatly reduces vibrations in the headstock whereas the motor V-belt would develope memory (vibration) if the headstock is not used frequently. I was using an hour meter I constructed and easily mounted in the headstock access hole to track hours. Might still have one or two hour meters somewhere. Yes, the link belt does cause some extra wear on the sheaves but I found it little more than the normal motor V belt. Blowing out the headstock yearly seems to help keep the aluminum dust problem to a minimum. It does keep the sheaves vane surfaces polished and never had a link belt stick to or in the sheaves. I only tracked the hours for a few years. My computer has crashed several times since then and I some how lost most of the data on this change to link belts. I found the wear on the sheaves over a 2 year period (around 500 hours) with the link belts were about the same amount that I machine off used sheaves (to remove scratches, nicks and mostly worn areas) when I recondition them now. I do not believe the link belt will wear the sheaves to the point where they no longer function and need replacing. If you use the shopsmith quite frequently, the belt setting (memory) should be minimum so the normal Shopsmith belt should be used. If the Shopsmith is not often used, then the link belt will greatly reduce the vibrations whenever the headstock is used.

Several years ago, wider than 1/2" motor belts became difficult to obtain from Shopsmith. I had been using the Shopsmith motor belts (wider than 1/2") most of the time but switched to using some 1/2" X 26" Kevlar V-belts with great success until the new Shopsmith motor belts became available last year. The wider Shopsmith motor belt allows for the the full range of the speed control dial once the belt is operated for some time.

Culprit wrote:The Fenner Power Twist Link Belts have an arrow on them to indicate direction, and the printed instructions that came with it talks to the direction and the arrow. I haven't tried running them backwards, so I can't comment on that, but I'm curious about it since I'm reversing the motor on my other SS. I'll probably go with a v belt on the other one. I'm curious to hear what results Bill has had with the kevlar v belt.

I used link belts on the my metal lathes that I converted from AC motor to DC motor and controller. Never saw or heard any difference when operating in reverse. I place the link belt to operate in the direction that the belt specifies and the spindle normally turns so would do the same for the Shopsmith. Never used a link belt on my reverse motor Shopsmiths because of the additional cost of the link belt.

I was using link belts on my DC motor/controller driven Shopsmith headstocks but never put many hours on the them due to many problems. I plan to use link belts initially when I attempt the DC motor/controller conversions again in the future. Then will switch to a V-belt once the fixed belt length is known.

nuhobby wrote:Yes, in my July 2008 Owners Weekend tour at Dayton, I saw the CNC machine that balances (by this type of milling) the sheaves, bandsaw wheels, etc.

I've also noted that older SS bandsaws had wheels that were milled all around and balanced. Newer bandsaw wheels seem to be milled only for the rubber tracks and for the balancing material-removals, with the rest of the casting permitted to have some runout.

Just to back up what others have said. It is done at the factory. Here is a pic of a brand new one I received from the factory.