Bandsaw Woes

My 14" Powermatic quit on me this morning when the motor seized up. I pulled the motor and the pulley off the shaft. This model has an air pump attached to the motor (to blow chips away while you're cutting). It was obvious that something was wrong with the air pump as the housing was bloated and it was very hard to remove from the shaft. After doing so though the shaft spun freely. Upon inspection of the air pump it seems the cam had worn erratically and had jammed against the motor shaft. I re installed the motor, without the pump this time (It never worked well anyway) and all is good again. I do have a belt squeal upon start up which has eluded me but I can live with that.

Glad you got it going again! Gizmos seem to be the weak point. After that last batch of ukes, I'd hate to have your progress on the next bunch held up! Hope the ground has quit shaking too!

It's always something! We have two bandsaws. The best one is a huge old Davis and Wells, but it lives in the shop in Hood River where Ben and Kerry process the neck blanks, blocks, toned, braces and other rough work. Up at the White Salmon shop we have a "nice" Grizzly that is always on the fritz. Luckily it only gets used to cut off waste at various points in the building process so it doesn't really matter that it is touchy. But, once you have used the big old American cast iron, its hard to use the Chinese sheet metal tools!

belt squeal upon start up

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If it's a vee belt try lightly touching the edges of the belt with some sandpaper to remove any shiny spots. It used to work on my old cars.
Miguel

lauburu said:

If it's a vee belt try lightly touching the edges of the belt with some sandpaper to remove any shiny spots. It used to work on my old cars.
Miguel

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Thanks. It's not a V belt though. It's one of those grooved ones with about 6 grooves in it. I thought the pulleys were out of alignment but that looks OK. I've also played with belt tension and it doesn't seem to matter. It's just a brief squeal that lasts about one second but I'm aware that out of ordinary noises means something's wrong.
EDIT: In hindsight I'm thinking that my belt is worn and has probably stretched. Maybe time to replace it. BTW, I have found www.ereplacementparts.com to be an excellent source for replacement parts of all kinds of power tools.

Chuck they are called J belts .....you just measure the length and number of ribs for the part number if you just look e'm up on Google you'll get one at a bargain price....I did