Shopsmith Forums

My Shopsmith belt sander has drift with the belt. Once I set the tracking so that it’s correct, it seems to run fine until I shut off the Shopsmith. When I turn it on again, the belt drifts and I have to re-set the belt tracking. Does anyone know why this might be happening?

How old is your belt sander? I think there were some sold with drive roller crowned which caused tracking problems.

Are you releasing tension after you're done using the sander? If you keep the tension the belt may stretch.

Hi Ed,

The serial number is 922100 (as best as I can read, since it's faded). I assume there's a date code format for Shopsmith, but I don't know it off hand. I don't release tension when I'm finished, so I'll start doing that. When I checked to see if the drive roller was crowned, I found the roller belt had slipped to the right, and started to come off the right side which would cause, I assume, unequal pressure on the belt and a slip. I attached a photo of the drive roller and belt from the front (the attach somehow flipped the photo 180 degrees). It looks like some sort of adhesive that holds the belt to the drive roller (rubber cement?). Maybe I need a new roller belt?

Looks like you've found the problem. They do sell the Driver Sleeve separately:
https://www.shopsmith.com/ownersite/ite ... tem=502932

For 12 bucks I'd replace it. Don't know what kind of adhesive is recommended but it shouldn't take much to hold the sleeve on the roller in place. I'm surprised yours shifted that far, maybe the glue dried out or there was some overheating.

Okay, I ordered the sleeve. Thanks for the quick responses. Shopsmith CS was great.

Okay, I replaced the drive sleeve (it was tough getting it on, but another thread suggested soapy water and that worked to a degree). The glue was dry when I removed the old sleeve, and it was applied sparingly so maybe there wasn't sufficient glue. It took some elbow grease to clean off the old glue (acetone worked reasonably well). I used rubber cement; that should hold it. During reassembly, I did not use lithium grease in the bearing pockets as suggested in another thread as that seemed unnecessary with the washer that's in the pocket, which is there for the sole purpose of keeping the bearing from spinning in the pocket. The manual suggests "crowning a new belt", but I decided against this after one attempt. One of my Klingspor belts separated at the seam when I tried crowning it, so I'll just leave the belts as they are when I replace them. Tracking seems better. I released tension, then re-applied it and tested to see if tracking remained. It eventually did, with a new belt. Thanks again for your help.

It the added tension added by crowning caused the belt to separate at the seam, that belt was likely to also do so while sanding.(not something I would look forward to)

You may be right; that belt wasn't new and may have been ready to give up the ghost. I had one separate under use, and the table prevented it from slapping me in the face.

I have follow up question. The drive on my belt sander is one of the crowned ones. If I order 62 502932 Belt Sander Driver Sleeve Drive Sleeve and put that on would that give me a straight drive roller?

number3456 wrote: Mon Aug 16, 2021 6:05 pm I have follow up question. The drive on my belt sander is one of the crowned ones. If I order 62 502932 Belt Sander Driver Sleeve Drive Sleeve and put that on would that give me a straight drive roller?

I can't answer with certainty but wanted to bump this back to the top in case someone that knows missed your question. But I imagine you'd need to order the Drum, only available as an assembly - 502789. I'm under the impression that it is the drum that either is or isn't crowned.

- David