Jim Bills
04-18-2006, 9:28 AM
I recently purchased this jointer, made in Brazil in 1987. It was purchased from a cabinet shop, and I bought it from the retiring owner. When I tested the jointer prior to the purchase, there was a fairly loud noise at start-up, but after about 2 seconds returned to a fairly normal jointer sound. The owner attributed the noise to "probably the original belt needs replacing and retensioning" sounded reasonable to me so I went ahead with the purchase. When I got it home I replaced the belt with no change in the noise. To make a long story short, the noise was actually in the motor.
The motor in question was a Delta labled Leeson 1.5 hp 1725 rpm motor with a 5.25" od pulley diameter. I recently did the math and found this results in a cutterhead speed of appx. 2875 rpm, which in my opinion is much too slow for a jointer.
I recently replaced this motor with a 1.5 hp 3450 rpm motor and a 4.75 od pulley which gives an appx cutterhead speed of 4875 rpm which is closer to the modern standard of about 5000 rpm. It now sounds better and cuts much better.
My question is, does anyone know if the original configuration (as I purchased the jointer) was indeed stock, or had someone actually changed the motor to a lower rpm.
Just interested and confused as to why a cabinet shop would use a jointer for so many years with such a low cutterhead speed.
Sorry for the length of the post, sometimes I tend to get wordy.
Jim
The motor in question was a Delta labled Leeson 1.5 hp 1725 rpm motor with a 5.25" od pulley diameter. I recently did the math and found this results in a cutterhead speed of appx. 2875 rpm, which in my opinion is much too slow for a jointer.
I recently replaced this motor with a 1.5 hp 3450 rpm motor and a 4.75 od pulley which gives an appx cutterhead speed of 4875 rpm which is closer to the modern standard of about 5000 rpm. It now sounds better and cuts much better.
My question is, does anyone know if the original configuration (as I purchased the jointer) was indeed stock, or had someone actually changed the motor to a lower rpm.
Just interested and confused as to why a cabinet shop would use a jointer for so many years with such a low cutterhead speed.
Sorry for the length of the post, sometimes I tend to get wordy.
Jim