My Unisaw quit on me this afternoon. I bought it in July 1988, which does not seem so very long ago 😏
it appears that the 1/4” key that holds the motor pulley to the motor shaft is missing. Replacing the key should be fairly easy, but should I be looking for the reason the key disappeared? Am I likely to be fixing the symptom but not the problem by simply replacing the key?
I will try to track down new belts at the same time, since I have things taken apart.
Any thoughts or suggestions will be appreciated.
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30+ years of vibration? Often there is a locking screw that seats against the key through the pulley. A slight dimple before you seat the new keystock and some locktite on the screw should do it. Biggest issue is the length of the key to get a good balance.
Thanks, _MJ_
I found and re-inserted the original key. The pulley has two set screws for the key, both needing about a 60-degree turn to tighten against the key and both taking significant effort to turn.
Hopefully that will take care of it! I probably won’t need another 32 years from this saw, but don’t want to go through this again!
Glad it worked out. This is a good reminder. I do a routine maintenance check on my machines on even numbered years. This generally takes about a day. I check bearings, belts, pulleys, fluids, nuts, bolts and just generally give things a looking over.
I do not know that his would have exposed your problem as I check the locking set screw for a pulley and don't back them out to check the primary unless the locking grub is loose which has only happened once IIRC.
Casters and cutters are another area that can get overlooked on some machines. Nothing to get your blood going like a jointer knife coming loose or a caster self-destructing on a tall machine mid-move.
Even the finest of these are just machines and machines wear with use. I do not say this with malice but, as a reminder to any who may read this. Never checking a drive pulley in 3 decades? I'd say things worked out very well for you ;-)
Put some Locktite on the set screws the red stuff will work. Had the same problem with a 2 year old Powermatic 8 " jointer where the set screws were loosening up on the cutter head pulley.
It was a wake-up call, all right. There are some other machines I should inspect, but I really don’t know what to look for.
How does a person evaluate a bearing on an arbor, or on a cutter head, for instance?
Any good references on maintenance of machines like these?
Some have told me to try and stand a nickle on edge, if it stays up there is very little vibration and this method works. If you have excessive vibration checking the bearings might be the culprit, I would first check to see if all of the mounting bolts are tight and go from there.
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