Hello John,
I have an old 6″ Delta-Rockwell jointer. The motor is powerful enough to go through 6 inch wide pine and other soft woods, but not maple or oak. I would like to put a new, more powerful motor on the jointer so it can get through those woods. I will have to swap out the pulley too, but how do I know what size to exchange the old pulley with?
Do you have any other advice/suggestions for this project?
thanks,
Mike
Duluth, MN
Replies
What is the horsepower of the current motor and what are the sizes of the the pulleys now on the machine?
Also are the blades sharp and does the motor stall or does the belt slip when trying to plane hardwoods?
How much material are you trying to remove in a single pass?
John White
Hello John,
Thanks for the quick reply. Sorry I'm just now getting back to you.The motor is 1/2 horse. The pulley on the motor measures 3.5 inches diameter, and the pulley on the drive of the jointer measures 2.25 inches.Blades are sharp. I do not recall if the motor stalls or if the belts slips, it has been a long time. I believe the belt was slipping, but am unsure. As far as material removed with each pass, probably about 1/16"I would like to be able to use this jointer for building furniture and such. I build mostly out of white oak and sugar maple and want to be able to joint edges for tabletops and faces for making legs...Any help is appreciated. Thank you.
Mike
Mike,If the belt is slipping then you probably have adequate horsepower, it just isn't getting to the cutter head. Using a 1/2 horsepower motor on 6" jointers was fairly common on older machines and was generally adequate. Most modern machines have 3/4 or 1 horsepower motors, mostly to out class the competition, rather than from necessity. Upping the horsepower only became popular when the availability of cheap imported motors made increasing the motor size an inexpensive option.So before you swap out the motor, I'd suggest that you tighten up the belt and make sure the pulleys are aligned. Actually the first thing I would do is to replace the belt with a Fenner linked belt. A link belt allows you to get the tension right without having to struggle with the typically inadequate motor mounting system on most jointers. Even if you decide to later replace the motor, installing a linked belt is still a good idea, for smooth running and ease of installation. With a linked belt you first position the motor to be square with the machine and with the pulleys aligned, and only once that is done do you install the belt, setting the tension by adding or subtracting links rather than having to reposition the motor which usually throws off the alignment.The pulleys only need to switched if they are damaged or if the new motor has a different size shaft. If, as is likely, the new motor runs at the same rpm as the old one, you should replace the pulley or pulleys, if that is needed, with ones of the same diameter.Hope this helps, John W.
John,
Hello and thanks much for your response.On the original frame, the motor was mounted on a 'hinged' platform, to put downward pressure tensioning the belt. I fixed the motor to a new frame I built, and got the belt on there.. and voila! The jointer is working and doing six inch Ipé, and Cuchi (very hard woods) with no problem. I also needed to remove less material each time, which resulted in a cleaner cut anyway.Where do I pick up one of these linked belts, because I could still use a new belt? Also, should I replace the bearings in this old jointer, now that I know it will work for my purposes? How do I do that? Thirdly, where can I get good quality 6 inch knives, so that I have a second set always sharpened and ready, when I send the others off for sharpening?Thanks so much John, I am glad to have this jointer working so well.
Mike
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