Shopsmith Forums

I've got a jointer that was making a clicking sound and the drive hub was getting hot. So I replaced the bearing and guess what the clicking sound is still there and the hub gets hot. Not too sure what to check out now. Any ideas?? thanks in advance.

Check for any bright spots on the metal components that would reveal any mechanical interference. How are you setting up the jointer? Is the drive coupling in proper alignment?
When you say the drive hub I assume that you are NOT talking about the cutter head. Make sure that the drive is in proper alignment.
Bill V

The clicking sound - can you hear it if you spin the cutter head by hand? A stethoscope would be a good tool for this but a screw driver to the ear will work. Since nothing other than the cutter head moves, this should not be hard to isolate.

The heat bothers me. There is also nothing other than bearings to generate heat.

SS mount, or stand alone? Were the 'pillow block' bearing mounts 'straight' etc.? Are the bearings properly seated in the mounts?

Maybe some pix would help.

Are the hubs tight?

Had the clicking noise too, and found one of them was loose. Don't know if it was hot, I shut it down when I heard something that wasn't right.

I will check the pillow blocks JPG and advise, thanks.

dusty wrote:The clicking sound - can you hear it if you spin the cutter head by hand? A stethoscope would be a good tool for this but a screw driver to the ear will work. Since nothing other than the cutter head moves, this should not be hard to isolate.

The heat bothers me. There is also nothing other than bearings to generate heat.

I must apologize, David. I was shooting in the dark without thinking this through. Alignment can hardly be an issue. The jointer bearings fit into the left and right bearing housings (#28 and #29) which are in turn mounted and secured in machined groves in the jointer casting and thus are "self aligning".

In the fallback mode, I must agree with previous posters that you should verify that the hubs are securely attached to their respective shafts and that the jointer is properly aligned with the headstock. I suppose that noticeable heat could be generated by the power coupler and hubs if not properly aligned. As for the clicking noise - I have nothing to offer.

Dusty, I believe the clicking sound is what is generating the heat in the accessory hub. I could hear the clicking when turning by hand with the old bearing but not with the new ones. I have more than one jointer so I ran another one to see if it generated any heat at the accessory hub and there was none. With the old bearing there was heat at the hub to the jointer and the head stock. With new bearings there was only heat at the accessory hub. So I've got some more research to do, thanks to all for the input. I thought maybe someone might have had this problem.

I'll go out on the limb here. If the heat is associated with only cutter head assembly I would be suspicious of that particular setup. When the coupling shaft is out of alignment thr connection to the hub will act similar to a universal joint and it will rock back and forth and that can cause heat. The fact that a different jointer and cutterhead does not cause a problem is significant to me. If the hubs are in fact in good alignment I would check to see if the cutterhead shaft is not bent.
Bill V

Update: problem fixed the cutter head was out of alignment. Also the hubs were not aligned. thanks for all the input, very helpful.

roy