Adjusting the belt tension on the HF 14" bandsaw has always been near impossible for 1 moderately sane person to do. Holding tension on the motor assembly while keeping it aligned and tightening the 4 mounting bolts, standing on your head is very difficult.
I decided to remove the middle pulley as Jon, Tom and others have described in recent posts. Not looking forward to going thru the tensioning ordeal again I began thinking of a solution. I ran my idea by a machinest bud, who came up with another idea.
In the pics below the larger block has a threaded 1/2 13 tpi hole drilled and tapped through for a 1/2 13 threaded rod. This piece is attached to the plate with 2 1/4" bolts. He drilled and tapped holes in the block, drilling thru holes and using 1/4 bolts and nuts would work also.
The end of the rod that attaches to the small plate was turned to 5/16" dia. to provide a shoulder to ride against the small plate. The small plate floats, is not attached to the motor mounting plate. The 5/16 end of the rod was center drilled, after inserting the turned end thru the small plate, the end was flared to keep the small plate and rod together.
I installed 5/16 bolts through the motor base and put lock nuts on them. This raises the motor base and makes adjusting easy. Raising the motor mount also provides a higher surface for the small adjuster plate to ride on. This pic is the tensioner in place and supplying tension.
The other end of the 1/2" rod has 2 nuts jamb locked. A 3/4" wrench or socket to turn the rod makes adjustment easy. Since the bolts in the motor mount have jamb nuts only one hand is needed to tighten the 4 bolts.
I'm sure I haven't made this clear.
My friend is open to making these if anyone is interested. I believe some of the components can also be done with wood and threaded inserts, if one chooses.
Ken
I decided to remove the middle pulley as Jon, Tom and others have described in recent posts. Not looking forward to going thru the tensioning ordeal again I began thinking of a solution. I ran my idea by a machinest bud, who came up with another idea.
In the pics below the larger block has a threaded 1/2 13 tpi hole drilled and tapped through for a 1/2 13 threaded rod. This piece is attached to the plate with 2 1/4" bolts. He drilled and tapped holes in the block, drilling thru holes and using 1/4 bolts and nuts would work also.
The end of the rod that attaches to the small plate was turned to 5/16" dia. to provide a shoulder to ride against the small plate. The small plate floats, is not attached to the motor mounting plate. The 5/16 end of the rod was center drilled, after inserting the turned end thru the small plate, the end was flared to keep the small plate and rod together.
I installed 5/16 bolts through the motor base and put lock nuts on them. This raises the motor base and makes adjusting easy. Raising the motor mount also provides a higher surface for the small adjuster plate to ride on. This pic is the tensioner in place and supplying tension.
The other end of the 1/2" rod has 2 nuts jamb locked. A 3/4" wrench or socket to turn the rod makes adjustment easy. Since the bolts in the motor mount have jamb nuts only one hand is needed to tighten the 4 bolts.
I'm sure I haven't made this clear.
My friend is open to making these if anyone is interested. I believe some of the components can also be done with wood and threaded inserts, if one chooses.
Ken
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