Shopsmith Forums

I just bought a router chuck for my 510. I did the set up and everything worked fine. I have not had the machine in the vertical for along time. After 2-3 hours of use practicing and cutting some groves, I noticed a slight change in speed. My shop is not real warm and I had just started working, so I thought it must be a temp change and continued for another 30 minutes. I then noticed a change in the sound of the headstock. I checked the router chuck, bit and quill and found nothing. Within 30 seconds of starting again I got a rattling sound and shut down. Trouble shooting led to this discovery. The Idler gear on the speed control was loose( Jam nut came loose) and while the speed control dial did not move, the worm control shaft did. This allowed the Speed quadrant to move to far toward high speed and it started to contact the fins on the Control sheave. (110). I reset the handle and idler, turned the motor by hand and got it back to a setting where it does not hit the sheave. My question is do I need to do anything other than try to reset the speed control as per the manual? I can't see any damage to the worm gear or quadrant assembly, but should I pull the speed control and look at it further. It seems to be fine when I run the motor and move it now. ( limited range of travel for safety sake) Should I LOC-TITE the jam nut when I reinstall things? I realize I dodged a pretty big bullet here when it didn't take out the sheave, so I want to be careful. Anything else I should think about.? Thanks in advance.

up date: I went ahead with the speed control adjustment process, cleaned and lubed while I was at it. I have run the speed up and down 3-4 times and all seems well. Needless to say the high speed adjustment was way out of whack, but it seemed to hold ok after the fix. I did not put the blade or router on because I ran out of time and I am still a bit skittish about the whole thing. Still need you thought before I go all out.

As long as the nut is now tight and all else is 'back to normal', I think all is well.

I think you are right, I just needed to hear it from some one other than me! I will see what happens and let you know. I never thought to check the tightness of the jam nut, and I suspect that it was the change from the horizontal that precipitated the movement. I will sure check it next time.

When in vertical all the 'slop' is taken out and the control sheave will migrate to the end of that slop(towards the speed control bracket and interfere).

Will the vibration of the headstock be enough to cause the control handle to turn in the vertical?

dlbristol wrote:Will the vibration of the headstock be enough to cause the control handle to turn in the vertical?

The three that I have here don't.

dlbristol wrote:Will the vibration of the headstock be enough to cause the control handle to turn in the vertical?

If it does, I would suspect a worn(narrow) motor belt.

That is good info, I will keep an eye on that. I did look at the belt, but not real close. Thanks for the info.