Grizzly planer question - hot pulleys

[Patrick Galpin]

Was using my 20" G0454Z today for approx 15 minutes when I noticed a hot plastic smell, shut down the machine and discovered the pulley cover was warm to the touch. Took it off and found the pulleys too hot to comfortably touch. Spent 30 minutes on the phone with tech support, checking the pulley alignment, fan operating properly, etc to no avail. Any thoughts or suggestions? Has anyone else encountered a similar problem?

[Keith Westfall]

Is it slipping during operation?

[Guy Belleman]

Probably slipping, but now that it has melted/burned a little, I would definitely replace the belt. That will also probably fix the problem.

[Dan Hintz]

If the pulley itself was really hot, I'm going to go out on a limb here and say purchase a new set of bearings now before the squeeling starts ;)

[Rod Sheridan]

I had the same issue with a similar planer owned by a friend.

I replaced the sheaves and belts with NA made items and the frictional losses went to normal valyes.

There will be some losses, however the poor sheaves and belts had excessive kosses...........Rod.

[Thad McCulloch]

The same thing happened to me when I first got my G0453 and was running it while getting it set up. I discovered that I had set the belt tension overly tight and those pulleys were really heating up from the friction of the belts. Only took a few minutes for them to get hot. I reduced the tension by being more careful with the belt tension setup and the overheating ceased. Might want to check and see if yours have somehow gotten too tight before you go taking things really apart.

[Patrick Galpin]

I probably should have mentioned that the support tech had me check the actual belt tension and it is fine, I can easily push the belt approx 1/2" in midway between the two pulleys, when I pull the belt by hand the cutter head moves with no problem and there is no indication of slippage on the belts (the tech had me check that first off) so belt tension is fine. When I say pulleys are hot I am referring to the actual metal pulleys at the top and bottom, not the belts. Any other suggestions?

[Thad McCulloch]

I understand that your pulleys got hot - mine did also, not the belts, but my actual metal pulleys were heating up too. I still think I'd try relaxing those belts a little and seeing what that does to the temp rise on those pulleys. Both the G0453 and 454 manuals that I've got copies of say that the belt deflection should be around 3/4" with slight pressure, not 1/2". Unless you really go overboard on loosening them or insist on making all your cuts always at the maximum depth allowable, those belts aren't at much risk of slipping.