Replacing Drive Belt on PM-1054V

[erikmannie]

After this, anyone can figure out how to put everything back like it was when you took it off.

I was very happy when we tested it, and the motor is much more quiet.

I will have to make sure not to bury any more cutting tools in the workpiece!

I will try to plan my work so that the weak link is the cutting tool and not the milling machine. Moving forward, I would much rather damage a cutting tool than another drive belt.

Thanks to Pat Gluch of Pat’s Equipment Repair in Cazadero for the professionalism & expertise.

 

[K30]

The tricky thing here is that there is a *tilting plate* that needs to be disconnected. On my machine, this tilting plate was an orange/rust color

Looks like red oxide primer, so accurate. Good job!

 

[zjtr10]

Thanks for sharing your experience. I’ve never done this job so I’m just thinking here.

if you had adjusted the spindle rpm to the max speed or minimum speed before disassembling it would that have given you more room to install the new belt?

 

[erikmannie]

Thanks for sharing your experience. I’ve never done this job so I’m just thinking here.

if you had adjusted the spindle rpm to the max speed or minimum speed before disassembling it would that have given you more room to install the new belt?

Yes, this topic came up before we started the job.

Several of the YouTube videos recommended setting the RPMs to the lowest speed setting, and so we did that.

However, at a few points in the beginning of the job, we had to change it back to the high RPM because we were turning the spindle by hand (using the end mill holder installed at the time). You know, how it’s easier to turn the spindle by hand if you set it to the highest (i.e. tallest) gear?

When I recommended to the mechanic that we put it back into the lowest speed before proceeding with the work (like we saw the videos), the mechanic surprised me by saying that this wouldn’t help us.

Because this gentleman had such a freakishly high mechanical attitude, he had figured out in his mind how the mechanism worked. He immediately explained to me the reason why there was no need to set the RPM to the lowest speed. I am sorry that I don’t remember what the reason was.

I chose to follow his lead on this, but if I were working by myself I would have set it to the lowest RPM as recommended in the YouTube videos. Maybe that’s why it was so tight to get the belt on there!

 

[Aukai]

Nice write up

 

[davidpbest]

I watched Joe Pie struggle with this several years ago and ever since I have recommended to potential new buyers that they get a conventional belt-driven mill and add a VFD for speed control. Here's Joe's epic saga:

I admire your courage to tackle this job. Does not look like fun.

 

[erikmannie]

Jack was side milling on the knee mill today for over 7 hours, and we both noticed that the machine is much, much quieter.

 

[erikmannie]

I watched Joe Pie struggle with this several years ago and ever since I have recommended to potential new buyers that they get a conventional belt-driven mill and add a VFD for speed control. Here's Joe's epic saga:

I admire your courage to tackle this job. Does not look like fun.

What is an example of a “conventional belt-driven mill”? I only know of variable speed or step pulley.

 

[erikmannie]

Before I threw it away, I took pictures of how bad the old belt was. This sure made for a noisy machine!

I am going to purchase a few spares. This tag was on the replacement belt that PM sent me.

 

[Winegrower]

I really don’t recall this job as that difficult, not to deny that it could be. I had to replace a couple of plastic bushings in the Reeves drive, using a kit from H&W, which was very well done and included a special tool. Part ot the repair involved removing the belt to get at the other stuff. I had the Bridgeport repair manual and followed it exactly. They showed to remove three screws from the housing somewhere and use two of them to compress the spring. A big point made in the manual was to run the speed control to one end or the other, forget which, but obviously to widen the pulley as much as possible. Then as I recall, the motor was tipped up and positioned forward a bit, so you could slip the belt on to both pulleys. I think without the manual, it would take a guru like you found to do it successfully.