Powermatic 66 question

[Thomas Lewis]

First post so please bear with me. My son in law purchased a used saw. It's a 3hp, single phase with the two belt system to the arbor. I have replaced the arbor assembly, shaft and bearings, and found that alignment to motor sheave/pulley was way off. I have removed the motor and pulled off the pulley. There was no key and looking at the parts drawing, no key is shown. Should there be a key on the motor shaft/pulley?
I have key stock that I can use.
Any help will be greatly appreciated.
Tom

[Don Jarvie]

I would add a key if you can. The PM motors came with a key.

[Doug Richardson]

I agree with Don. I cannot see any reason that adding a key would negatively affect its operation. I'll stick my neck out and say it could only help things. ;-)

[Thomas Lewis]

After looking around I found the key that came out. It was a 1/8th key instead of the 3/16th needed. I am still confused. As you know, the sheave has a hub on it with the set screws facing toward the motor. In order to position the sheave correctly to line up with the sheave on the arbor, the hub of the sheave is in the back of the key slot in the motor where it tapers up and the key cannot go back that far. I can't move the sheave on the arbor any further out to make alignment of the belts because the set screw is already on the end of the woodruff key.
My question, is there any reason the motor sheave can't be put on with the hub facing out there by position would be correct for belts and key would be under set screw not to mention easier to access the set screws with the motor in place.
Thanks again,
Tom

[John McClanahan]

Nothing wrong with turning the pulley around. I would look the arbor over again and try to figure out why the pulleys are out of alignment now.

John

[Thomas Lewis]

Thanks John, Don, and Doug,
The old arbor sheave was loose on the shaft and had caused extreme wear on the shaft. I replaced it with a new OEM arbor shaft assembly. When I put the new shaft assembly in the casting, I tried to center it in the casting(equal spacing/distance between edge of bearing and casting). Then I put the sheave on the arbor shaft, moving it inboard as far as I thought would be correct( inboard edge of sheave in line with the end of the woodruff key). The sheave on the motor was at least .200" too far left so I have to move the sheave on the motor inboard that much and in doing so I had the above problem with the key on motor shaft.
I think I will align the sheaves with the motor sheave turned around and use blue thread lock on the sheave set screws.
Thanks again for everyones help.
Tom

[Zach Duran]

i recently bought an old PM66. it has a 1.5 HP single phase motor. i would like to do a lot of work with 8/4 maple and oak, and think that maybe i should upgrade to a 2 or 3 HP motor, possibly 3 phase. I just got an old 3 phase PM 60 jointer, so i am soon going to be getting a rotary phase converter. Anybody have any opinions or suggestions on if i should replace the motor, or will a 1.5 HP suffice for most work? I am a hobbyist, by no means going to be doing any high production work. thanks!!

[John McClanahan]

I bought my 66 used with a 5 hp 3 ph motor. While researching how I wanted to run it, I decided to make a motor adapter and mount a Baldor 1.5 hp motor so I could use my "New" saw. It's been almost 3 years now and the 1.5 hp motor is still on it. For me, I'm not feeling the need for more power. Plus, I can plug it into regular 120 v.house current.

John

[Doug Ladendorf]

Tom, I think you will be fine turning the pulley around. The new arbor could be slightly different from the original.

Zach, my previous table saw had a 1.5 HP motor and I could cut 8/4 maple and walnut without a problem. For hobbyist use it should work for you.

[Brian J Smith]

I have a 66 with a 5 hp 3 ph motor, and went through the process of installing a phase converter, that cost at least another $1k, smarter move would have been to buy another motor, or just another saw, but the 66 is quite powerful.