Has anyone ever had any trouble with the blade height adjustment on their Powermatic 66? My once-effortless spin of the wheel now takes a bit of effort. I spray the worm gear and gear segment with brake cleaner and brush any crud off with a brass brush and let dry. I have tried spray lithium grease, spray teflon, and any number of lubricants….they all seem to free up the mechanism, but the sticking soon returns.
I talked with the repair guy where I bought the saw, and he thought it was the worm gear, but, no, it looks like new. (I asked him what to use for lubrication, and he told me to use automotive chassis and bearing grease!!)
Anyway, as a last resort, I consulted the owner’s manual (I apologize for this unmanly behavior). It says, if after cleaning and greasing, the mechanism still binds, to check the alignment of the worm gear and worm gear segment…if they are not centered, binding will occur.
To do this, you loosen the saw raising arm setscrews, move the arm as required and relock. My question is:
Wheretheheckarethesawraisingarmsetscrews???
I’m no engineer by any stretch, the schematic diagram is (or I am) a little unclear, and the parts list describes bolts by size, not function.
I’d appreciate any help…I don’t want to suffer the ultimate humiliation of having to call Powermatic customer service!
kreuzie
Replies
I would call customer service. After all, that's what customer service is for. Isn't that one of the reasons you went witha quality brand?
Bill
Dear K,
I have a PM 66 and have had the binding that you describe. I soaked the mechanism in WD-40 and worked it back and forth until it was free again. I would be hesitant to use brake cleaner as I would be concerned that it would dissolve all of the grease and leave you with metal on metal, in particular the bearings that support the hand crank. I would try dousing the whole mess with WD and see if that will weep into the tighter areas and loosen things up. Wd really isn't a great lubricant and will dissolve grease fairly slowly, but if you can loosen things with a can of it, then I would think that your problem is more lubrication than alignment.
Best,
John
Have you tired liberally applying white lithium grease from a tube. I don't think the spray on type provides enough lubricant.
You are loosening the lock knob before raising or lowering right?
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Men will never be free until the last king is strangled with the entrails of the last priest.
~ Denis Diderot
Correct.
I figured you probably were but I've seen it happen so often I had to ask!
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Men will never be free until the last king is strangled with the entrails of the last priest.~ Denis Diderot
Hey, I'm not half as dumb as I look!
Seriously, no offense intended. Some of the guys I was talking about have been using that saw in production shops for years!
Sometimes when turning the adjusting wheel clockwise the locking wheel will turn with it. I try to get them in the habit of loosening the locking knob whether they have locked it or not.
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Men will never be free until the last king is strangled with the entrails of the last priest.~ Denis Diderot
No offense taken. I appreciate your suggestion...it's best to start with the simple stuff.
kreuzie
I had the same problem. Loosening by a hair the big nut on right side from the motor fixed it. It's labeled #50 on the schematic. I happened to have a socket that fit it, but the big end of the arbor wrench fits it too.
Can't help you with the raising arm set screws. People report good service from Powermatic tech help, but I got an uninformative brush-off the one time I tried it.
Thanks for the tip!
We must have different versions of the 66....mine'a a 1995 vintage. The big nut was larger than my largest (1 1/4") socket, so I used a big Channelock to loosen it. Took more than a tad...more like 1/2 turn, but it operates much more smoothly now.
I suspect that the shaft the nut is on and the races in the trunnion and bearing arm have a bit of corrosion. Probably have to pull the motor to get at the retaining ring on the left side, but once the shaft is out, I think a good cleaning with emery cloth on the shaft and races, followed by lubrication, would do the trick.
I was surprised I could turn the nut, with what looks like only friction keeping that shaft from turning with the nut.
Also, what's that square head bolt (#52) all about? It looks like it goes through the bearing arm and touches the shaft in question. Maybe this is how you adjust the friction on the shaft? My schematic shows a jam nut under the bolt, but there is no jam nut on my saw. Looks like I have to remove the dust chute assembly in order to get an eight point socket on it, but it might be worth a shot.
I'll try that tomorrow after work (let the shop warm up a bit).
I'll keep you posted. Thanks again.
kreuzie
Glad I could help. Our models are the same. I just happened to have a 1 11/16-inch socket I bought in the '70s for working on my Sportster (long since gone).
kreuzie I have the same problem about every 2 months or so,and the best way I have found to fix it is to clean/blow out the worm gears and wd40 the stew out of the pivot points I can get to after removing the outer plastic moter cover.I will look in my owners manual to see if it tells me any different than yours. Later Rickk
Sorry, I just saw your post
See link..
http://content.wmhtoolgroup.com/manuals/1660760K_man.pdf
Page 13 Figure 22 shows the location of the two screws. Have fun!
PM66 Blade Height Adjustment
All:
I realize this thread has been silent for 3 years but hoping some of you are still listening. I too have a problem with raising/lowering the blade on my PM66. I have cleaned and lubed and no improvement. I am hesitant to make big adjustments since in my case the problem came on suddenly versus getting progressively worse. My theory is that I was careless in not loosening the locking knob sufficiently before cranking the blade up or down and something is jambed. To test this I tightened the locking knob and attempted to turn the wheel and it turns with about the same force as it takes with the locking knob loostened. Any ideas? Thanks!
I think I fixed it
The shaft that moves the gear that raises and lowers the blade has a Woodruff Key which is what locks the blade height when the knob is tightened. According to the schematic the key is on top of the shaft when the flat portion of the end of the shaft is pointing up. So here's what I did: I positioned the flat portion of the shaft down so that the woodruff key would by on the bottom of the shaft. Gravity is your friend... I then sprayed a liberal amount of WD into the shaft and followed that with a few bursts of compressed air with a rag over the end of the shaft to keep it from spraying all the WD out. I then left it overnight. Not sure if that's necessary but it worked for me. My theory is that I jambed the woodruff key when I didn't loosten the knob enough and raised the blade. note: I would not use WD anywhere inside the cabinet but the inside of the shaft is not exposed to sawdust so not a problem there. Hope this works for you too!
Powermatic 66
I'm referring to the answer you gave back in 2012 about the woodruff key. I'm having a different issue. My hieght adjustment works fine but even when locked the blade hieght drifts down when the saw is running. I called costomer service and they thing the woodruff key needs to be replaced. When you turn the shaft so that the flat is down, can you actually get at the key? They said I could but I can't seem to see it or the shaft. The diagram in the manual sucks so it's no help. Do you have any experience in this area?
Powermatic 66
I'm referring to the answer you gave back in 2012 about the woodruff key. I'm having a different issue. My hieght adjustment works fine but even when locked the blade hieght drifts down when the saw is running. I called costomer service and they thing the woodruff key needs to be replaced. When you turn the shaft so that the flat is down, can you actually get at the key? They said I could but I can't seem to see it or the shaft. The diagram in the manual sucks so it's no help. Do you have any experience in this area?
Powermatic Model 66 blade raising handle hard to turn
I had problem of handle becoming progressively stiff to the point of finding ways to use other tools to do what could best be done on the 66. Cleaning gears did nothing. Spraying WD-40 into the locking shaft did the trick. Wow it's like a new saw. I also sprayed it into the tilt shaft locking hole as well and that too improved. This is wonderful. Thank you!
Thanks for the comments on Powermatic 66 Height Adjustment issues and possible solutions. My blade height adjustment became so difficult that i had to use two hands to turn the wheel. Anyway, you inspired me to remove the top of my saw (not so bad in three pieces) and do a thorough inspection, cleaning and adjustment - I have had this saw since new since around 1978! I loosened the compression/hex nut slightly (methinks #50 on the schematic) and this may have helped a bit. The thing that really made a huge difference was lubricating the saw raising shaft (#25) - the raising of the blade is as if the machine is new. I expect this lubricating will need periodic attention so the next thing to figure out is how to get something in that tight space to lubricate the shaft without removing the cast iron top. Thanks again to all of you for the inspiration! I am 72 and look forward to many more years of fund with my PM66.
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