Shopsmith Forums

6 in. SS belt sander. Haven’t used it in many years, cleaned it up, aligned the belt, applied tension on the belt using the Tension knob, But when using a plastic ‘drive shaft’ to move the belt, by hand, the Tension knob spring release allows the belt to slacken (idler drum slips toward the drive drum). Shouldn’t there be some sort of lock (a click) holding the tension knob at the set tension? Is my unit so old that the mechanisms inside the idler drum are not holding the correct belt tension?

Setting the tension is not intuitively obvious(indeed tis counter intuitive).

I will look for a thread explaining the procedure. On the inside there may be instructions on the back side of the backup plate.

Here tis: https://www.shopsmith.com/ss_forum/view ... 24#p191924

I cannot find the instruction label from Shopsmith in the repair parts that was on the back side of the Back-up Plate JPG is referring to. I do not know if it is still included on the Back-up Plate on new Belt Sanders. It is information contained in the Owner's Manuals on changing belts. I refurbished a 1989 Belt Sander over 3 years ago and attached a reproduction of that label in it to replace the original.

chapmanruss wrote:I cannot find the instruction label from Shopsmith in the repair parts that was on the back side of the Back-up Plate JPG is referring to. I do not know if it is still included on the Back-up Plate on new Belt Sanders. It is information contained in the Owner's Manuals on changing belts. I refurbished a 1989 Belt Sander over 3 years ago and attached a reproduction of that label in it to replace the original.

Look in the link in the previous post(191924)

Yes the link is to a picture of the label you previously posted. Shopsmith doesn't list the label any longer. Attached below is the PDF of the reproduction I used on the Belt Sander I refurbished.
I wonder if they stopped using the instruction label on the back of the Back-up Plate since you can no longer read the instructions once the belt is in place.

chapmanruss wrote:Yes the link is to a picture of the label you previously posted. Shopsmith doesn't list the label any longer. Attached below is the PDF of the reproduction I used on the Belt Sander I refurbished.

Belt Sander plate label.pdfI wonder if they stopped using the instruction label on the back of the Back-up Plate since you can no longer read the instructions once the belt is in place.

How does leaving it off help????

Thanks to all responses. I'll review the instructions that JPG sent. parejo