Tablesaw Motor Pulley Question

[Harley Reasons]

I ordered the Contractor Saw Performance Package from In-Line Industries and received them last week. My original motor pulley is three inches in diameter and the replacement is two and half inches in diameter.
My question is; will this reduce the RPM's of the saw and degrade the saw's performance?.

[Dave Westover]

I had the same issue from inline. They finally emailed me and said their pulley setup should produce the recommended 3800 rpm. They must be assuming all table saw motors run at 3450, which they might, but I dont know if thats the case.

I have a delta 36-650 btw. Im not real happy with inline, for that and other reasons.

Edit, I think if it is your arbor pulley that is smaller than the original, it would increase the speed. Still unsure about how it would effect the cut though.

[Harley Reasons]

My motor is a 3450 rpm. What other issues did you have with them.

When I ordered, they did not have the power twist belt in stock and said it was going to be Oct before they got anymore in. I ordered that from Rockler.

When I ordered online, I gave them my correct address, they got it right on the invoice but whoever addressed the package put a completely different street name on it. Fortunately, a local postal worker took it upon themselves to investigate and called me to confirm I had ordered something from In-Line.

Does anyone know of another site that sells these pulleys? If I could source them from somewhere else I might just send these back to them.

[glenn bradley]

My motor is a 3450 rpm.

Every 3450 saw I've had has run the same size pulley at the motor and the blade. I have and older saw that runs a 1728 rpm motor and the pulleys are sized to provide about 3500 rpm at the arbor.

[Tom Henderson2]

In-line strikes again.

It's a darn shame. Jerry Cole has designed some VERY nice products; the PALS is a godsend for us Contractor Saw owners, and his Dubby gets great reviews. I met Jerry at the recent Pomona Woodworking Show and he seems like a very nice fellow and he puts on a VERY convincing demo of his products.

But the folks at his home office that do order fullfillment and customer service are a disaster. They can be difficult to contact by phone, don't return calls or emails, etc.

Unfortunately, I'm not aware of another provider for machined pulleys. You might check McMaster-Carr (www.mcmaster.com (http://www.mcmaster.com)) or Grainger (www.grainger.com (http://www.grainger.com)) to see if they have them.

-Tom H.
Ventura, CA

[Jacob Reverb]

When I ordered, they did not have the power twist belt in stock and said it was going to be Oct before they got anymore in. I ordered that from Rockler.

FWIW, I found that Grizzly was BY FAR the cheapest source of Power-Twist belts (they manufacture them). I bought one for my PM 64A and it works great.

[George Sanders]

Pulley diameters do change the speed of the driven pulley. The formula for this is to take the diameter of the driver x its RPM and divide it by the diameter of the driven pulley. Changing the motor RPM also changes the blade speed.

[Howard Acheson]

I ordered the Contractor Saw Performance Package from In-Line Industries and received them last week. My original motor pulley is three inches in diameter and the replacement is two and half inches in diameter.
My question is; will this reduce the RPM's of the saw and degrade the saw's performance?.

It will change the speed very little and have no affect on the quality or speed of the cut. All contractor saw motors I am aware of run at 3450RPM no-load speed unless it is an older saw.

On another point, you probably could have save the money you spent on the new pulleys. It's very rare that the stock pulleys are out of round or out of balance enough to materially affect the smoothness of the saws operation.

[Harley Reasons]

On another point, you probably could have save the money you spent on the new pulleys. It's very rare that the stock pulleys are out of round or out of balance enough to materially affect the smoothness of the saws operation.

Thanks, I guess I should have done my homework on these pulleys before I invested in them. I'll probably change out the motor pulley and just leave the arbor pulley as is. The original is a split design and the replacement is a key way pulley. After everyone's input so far, I'm not 100% certain that it is worth the time and effort to replace the arbor pulley.
I guess I can chalk this one up as one of my "cheaper" misfortunes.

[Bruce Wrenn]

I put "Power Twist" belts on my saws years ago. Recently, on a new saw in the stable, I put a NEW Goodyear belt. The saw literally jumped up and down. Took belt off and put on Power Twist belt. Shakes immediately stopped. A friend bought a used Delta Contractor's saw last week. It is an older model (pre 1988) with very low mileage. It came with two zinc die cast pulleys. Turned steel pulleys from In-Line are cheaper than cast iron Browning pulleys, so I ordered a set. We will see how this works out.

[Dave Westover]

My motor is a 3450 rpm. What other issues did you have with them.

When I ordered, they did not have the power twist belt in stock and said it was going to be Oct before they got anymore in. I ordered that from Rockler.

When I ordered online, I gave them my correct address, they got it right on the invoice but whoever addressed the package put a completely different street name on it. Fortunately, a local postal worker took it upon themselves to investigate and called me to confirm I had ordered something from In-Line.

Does anyone know of another site that sells these pulleys? If I could source them from somewhere else I might just send these back to them.

Same issue with the belt. They told me to find it elsewhere, so it ended up costing me a few bucks more than their performance package since I had to pay shipping from two different places.

I went ahead and put their pulleys on my saw despite being undersized. Seems to work fine now. One installation issue I had was the set screw on the motor pulley was too long and would have contacted the belt during operation. I just ground it down a bit and smoothed it out with a file. Works ok, but that was just another issue I could have done without.

I like the PALS, but if I had it to do over again, I would look elsewhere for the belt and pulleys. I dont think inline will be getting any more of my business any time soon.

[Harley Reasons]

I was looking at the PALS and just wondered if they were worth the $19.99 plus shipping that In-Line wants for them.
How much trouble are they to install?

[Pat Germain]

I was looking at the PALS and just wondered if they were worth the $19.99 plus shipping that In-Line wants for them.
How much trouble are they to install?

I installed PALS on my Craftsman saw. I got lucky and found a set on the clearance rack at my local Woodcraft. They were easy to install. I just removed the two outside bolts from the back of my trunnion, installed the long studs that came with the kit, then bolted on the PALS.

The only problem I've had with the PALS is one of the allen screws somewhat stripped out when I was adjusting my trunnion. I had all the bolts loosened. Therefore, I don't think this should have happenend. I should probably drill and tap new holes for larger allen screws. In fact, I think the PALS should come with larger allen screws.

[Tom Veatch]

...
My question is; will this reduce the RPM's of the saw and degrade the saw's performance?.

Not if the arbor pully is about 2.25" diameter and the desired output is about 3800 RPM. That's not exactly correct since we're talking about OD of the pulleys instead of Pitch Diameter, but it's reasonably close.

A 2.5 pitch diameter drive pulley on a 3450 RPM source will produce 3833 RPM on a 2.25 pitch diameter driven pulley. As long as the power rating on the belt(s) isn't exceeded, 3800 RPM is the recommended output, and the arbor pulley isn't too large, you're perfectly fine with the geometry of what they sent you

Edit:
Looking at some other considerations, if your arbor pulley is 3" then you'll get about 2875 RPM at the blade, but the torque at the blade with be increased by about 20%. Higher torque is more important than blade speed with respect to bogging down at reasonable feed rates.

[Christopher Fletcher]

Any updates on the machined pulley installs? Have the differences been worth the hassles and cost?

[Dick Brown]

If you really want a good job of fixing your saw, go to an industrial supply house and get a taper lock pulley for arbor and motor both.If you want, they will tell you what size to get the RPM you want. The better thing about the taper lock is it grips the shaft all the way around so if the shaft is true, the pulley is true. Problem with most pulleys is they just have one set screw so if your shaft is any under size or scarred up, you have built in vibration because, the tighter you make the set screw, the more you force the pulley rim out of a true circle. I rebuild table saws and sell them to St. Vincent de Paul for just enough to cover my costs and donate my labor. Have gone through quite a number of them and when I find a problem one, I will drill and tap the pulleys for two set screws, one on each side, to help keep the pulley from moving. Works much better than just one side. Not as good as the taper lock but not as expensive.
Dick

[Christopher Fletcher]

Any websites to get more information about taper locks?

[Pete Bradley]

Seems obvious, but new pulleys only make a difference if there's something wrong with the old ones. A machine with a properly made pot metal pulley that is not worn out will be indistinguishable in use from a machine with machined pulleys.

Pete

[Bruce Wrenn]

I think the correct wording is "split taper bushings."