Shopsmith Forums

Hooked up a recently acquired SS (2 bearing quill) w/jointer and was happily jointing away in a hot shop under a fan. Began to notice a hint of warm wood smell and that the temp seemed to be rising. Put my hand on the housing and it was hotter than I care to hold onto. No burning smell of either electrical or belt. No detectable bearing sounds. Infra red temp gauage indicted that it was hotter on the non-quill side near the jointer. Jointer was cool and couldn't ask it to work better.

Will take temp again after starting with a cool SS to find exact source of heat.

Any thoughts?

Thanks

Update: After lubbing it several times and using it on a regular basis, the temp and noise issue has gone away. The guy did say that it had sat for a while.

scollins wrote:Hooked up a recently acquired SS (2 bearing quill) w/jointer and was happily jointing away in a hot shop under a fan. Began to notice a hint of warm wood smell and that the temp seemed to be rising. Put my hand on the housing and it was hotter than I care to hold onto. No burning smell of either electrical or belt. No detectable bearing sounds. Infra red temp gauage indicted that it was hotter on the non-quill side near the jointer. Jointer was cool and could ask it to work better.

Will take temp again after starting with a cool SS to find exact source of heat.

Any thoughts?

Thanks

Make sure that tension is correct on both belts. If the belts are slipping (insufficient tension), excess heat will be developed. If the belts are too tight the bearings could be in stress and that will develop heat.

If belt tension is correct, you could be in the process of losing a bearing or two but if there is no audible indication, I would just keep using the Shopsmith.

When ambient temperatures are up and the headstock is operated for extended periods of time, the casing gets uncomfortably hot to touch (especially the top left quadrant of the headstock).

dusty wrote:Make sure that tension is correct on both belts. If the belts are slipping (insufficient tension), excess heat will be developed. If the belts are too tight the bearings could be in stress and that will develop heat.

If belt tension is correct, you could be in the process of losing a bearing or two but if there is no audible indication, I would just keep using the Shopsmith.

When ambient temperatures are up and the headstock is operated for extended periods of time, the casing gets uncomfortably hot to touch (especially the top left quadrant of the headstock).

The shafts can get quite hot, especially the idler shaft.

The only manually adjustable belt tension is the drive belt(Gilmer/Poly-V).

When was the last time you blew saw dust accumulation from the MOTOR?;)

I'll go with what Dusty and JPG said.
Dusty mentioned "When ambient temperatures are up and the headstock is operated for extended periods of time, the casing gets uncomfortably hot to touch (especially the top left quadrant of the headstock)."

That fact as well as you pointed out you were in a hot shop, leads me to believe there is nothing wrong. Just a check on the tension of the Poly V belt and a remembering when you last lube/cleaning was.

IMHO, if you can't remember when you last cleaned/lubed your SS, It's either due or over due.

This is the first time that I have used this SS. The housing on my other one never gets hot. I don't recall it even getting warm. The first thing I do with used equipment is clean and go over it looking for obvious issues. It is clean inside. I have not lubed it yet so I will give it a try. It has developed a little noise so it could be a bearing. I wll try checking the belts for being too tight. I would think that slipping would give off a belt odor.

scollins wrote:This is the first time that I have used this SS. The housing on my other one never gets hot. I don't recall it even getting warm. The first thing I do with used equipment is clean and go over it looking for obvious issues. It is clean inside. I have not lubed it yet so I will give it a try. It has developed a little noise so it could be a bearing. I wll try checking the belts for being too tight. I would think that slipping would give off a belt odor.

My experience has been with a very small number of different Mark 5/Vs but they have all gotten warm/hot when used. I don't believe that all headstocks will exhibit exactly the same thermal characteristics; some will get hotter than others. This depends on general condition and how hard you are using it. Long, continuous operation versus a lot of on/off operations will be different.

I know first hand very, very little about an unlubricated Mark 5/V. I have never operated one that was not well lubricated. IMHO - Clean and well lubricated leads to trouble free operation.