Shopsmith Forums

Hi all,

I'm finally closing in (I think) on the completion of my April 1955 Greenie headstock restoration, but I think that something is out of adjustment and I'm hoping that you guys can point me in the right direction.

The motor is an A.O Smith 3/4 HP that I rebuilt with new bearings. On its own, it starts and spins freely with no noise. Honestly, it sounds great. I was pleasantly surprised given this is the first time I've rebuilt a motor like this.

The belts are new as are the bearings in the quill and accessory drive. 5 new bearings total in the headstock. The non-motor components also spin freely without noise and overall much quieter than they were before the teardown.

When attaching the motor to the top, I set the speed control so that the sheaves were open to give me the most belt length to work with and with a small amount of effort I was able to slip it around the motor sheaves, which are held (very) tightly together by the spring on the motor shaft. Fitting the motor carrier to the top of the headstock took some effort to get the screws lined up. But still, it looked OK to me and grabbing the belt I am able to turn it such that the rest of the spindles in the top turn and I don't hear any binding, rubbing or scratching. However, when I flip the switch to turn it on, I hear the motor try to start and I see the shafts move a little, but it's clearly too much effort for the motor to turn everything properly. So what am I missing? Are my belts not tensioned correctly, or is something not lubricated as it should be? The only other observation I've made is that I'm not happy with the way the motor carriage is attaching to the top -- it seems to not line up as I'd like and when I tried to put the front cover on, it didn't slide on and off easily as it had before. So something is clearly different, I just don't know what it is.

Thanks for any advice or ideas that you might have.
John

Now that the belt is on, put the sanding disk on the spindle, and while turning by hand, turn the speed down to slow.

Thanks, Ron. I'll go try that. What do you think about the alignment of the motor carrier with the top? Shouldn't it line up better than that? Is there a trick to getting that to fit properly?

Thanks,
John

rpd wrote:Now that the belt is on, put the sanding disk on the spindle, and while turning by hand, turn the speed down to slow.

Yes as Ron says you need to get it back to slow.

The belt is very high on the motor pulley which might mean that the belt is stuck in the upper, if and when that happens it is very difficult to turn even by hand. You might want to check on that first.

Ed

Woohoo! That did it. She's running smoothly. Now I want to see if I can adjust that motor carriage just a bit to make it fit better. Then I'll go through and lube everything again and hopefully button her up so I can start working on the rest of the mess. ;-)

Thanks, guys!

Where did you obtain the motor belt and what size is it?

There is little 'adjustment' room for the motor pan fit.

Now a "High speed adjustment" #13, and "reset the outer speed dial" #17
http://allinonewood.com/?page=shop/serviceadvisor&

> Now a "High speed adjustment" #13, and "reset the outer speed dial" #17
Yep, I need to do both of those. I started to mess with the outer speed dial and stopped because it looked like I might have needed to take the entire speed control out to reset it. Hopefully, those instructions will provide a better way.

I'm anxious to get on with the rest of the restoration too. It took me so long to do the headstock with the holidays and all the learning required. I'm really hoping that the hardest part is behind me. But time will surely tell.

JPG wrote:Where did you obtain the motor belt and what size is it?

There is little 'adjustment' room for the motor pan fit.

I got them either from Jacob's site or directly from ShopSmith. I'm not sure which one, because I ordered stuff from both of the sites. The belts from both sources would be functionally equivalent, wouldn't they? (I hope so)

johnkgerken wrote:

JPG wrote:Where did you obtain the motor belt and what size is it?

There is little 'adjustment' room for the motor pan fit.

I got them either from Jacob's site or directly from ShopSmith. I'm not sure which one, because I ordered stuff from both of the sites. The belts from both sources would be functionally equivalent, wouldn't they? (I hope so)

Maybe! Your belt looks to be somewhat 'long'. I guess it does NOT have a SS part # on it. I guess it is 1/2" too long.

But then the pix may be misleading(hence the question).