Motor/belt replacement

[tfischer]

Hi all,

Anyone have any quick advice on how to swap out motors on the BT3100? I will also have to take the belts from my existing (dead) motor and move them to the new (used) one.

Thanks!

[cork58]

Lots and lots of discussion about this, start with this one. http://www.bt3central.com/showthread...lt+replacement

[tfischer]

Thanks much for the link.

Ugh, what a horribly, horribly overcomplicated job. I managed to get the old motor out (virtually disassembling every part of the saw), but only at the expense of drilling out one of the 4 motor screws that was stuck so bad that even an impact driver couldn't get it out (nor could a screw extractor). I have the new one partially installed but will have to source a replacement screw before I continue.

I never thought I'd use so many tools just for a simple motor replacement. And if a belt breaks in a week, I do it all again?? What a terrible design.

[tfischer]

The saw is back together and operational!

I took one of the motor screws in to the hardware store this AM to replace the one I had to drill out... I figured it was some funky metric thing, but it turned out to be a plain-jane #10-24. That was easy.

Turns out I probably took apart a lot more than I needed to. At first I thought I had to take the top of the saw off, so I removed the SMT, router table, rails, and my two miter slot tables... both sides were already off, and it was at that point I realized taking the top off was going to do me no good. So then it was disassembling the entire motor assembly which is enough of a pain by itself.

I hope I never have to do that again, but if I do, at least I should be quicker next time.

Thanks all for the advice here and in other threads.

[LCHIEN]

There's absolutely no metric hardware in the BT3s. they are all SAE/imperial threads and sizes, like #10-24, 3/8-16, etc.
The vertical elevation is based on a 12 TPI thread so each turn of the crank raises the blade .08333"