Shopsmith Forums

I've been using my PowerPro for about six weeks now and absolutely love it!

As I was reading some information about the PowerPro I ran across a statement saying the belts were supposed to be very tight. I didn't recall the longer belt on my machine being "very tight".

I checked and the longer belt has about 3/8" flex when pushed with my finger.
This seems to be quite "loose" rather than "very tight". Is there a standard amount of flex that would be "correct"?

BTW, my machine runs well and I have not had any problems with any functions with the machine.

Any suggestions/recommendations will be greatly appreciated.

I believe I encountered most of what I heard about PowerPro belt-tension during the DIY installation process, and most of that via the DVD instructions.

The primary goals on belt-setup were:
1. Upper and lower belt tensions are arranged (via the eccentric idler-bearing adjustment) so that the forces applied to the idler-bearing are more or less balanced, giving cool and quiet operation to that bearing.
2. Overall strong belt tensions are most necessary during high-load, low-rpm situations. The adjustments influencing overall tensions are the motor-mount setscrews and the idler-bearing eccentric.

I haven't opened up my PowerPro again since I set it all up in Sept. 2010, so I can't recall how tight that lower belt was. If you're happy, I wouldn't worry about it. But given comment #2 above, maybe something like a heavy bandsaw cut would help assess if the belt is "tight enough."

Enjoy!