I was setting up my new Jet 14" bandsaw, and aligning the pulleys was
a PITA! The Duginski book says this only takes a few minutes. I'd like
to know how. The entire motor mount was angled when I got the saw,
and the pulleys were not parallel, let alone aligned.

I placed the belt over the two pulleys, and the weight of the motor
pulled the far end down, changing the parallelism. I have to (a) hold
the motor mount level with 2 hands, (b) use the third hand to apply
tension to the motor, (c) assure the pulleys were parallel with my
fourth hand, and (d) tighten the 4 bolts with my free hand.
Not really, but that's why I was cussing.

Anyhow - I finally figured out how to do it. But am I missing
something? I there an easier way? This is what I did.

1) Loosen the motor mounts (and remove the belt if necessary).
2) Lower the motor to the bottom of the adjustment slots.
3) Make sure the pulleys are parallel using the bottom position of the
slot as reference.
4) Raise the motor up and place the belt around the motor pulley and
lower wheel pulley. This changed the parallelism, as I mentioned.
5) I placed a hydraulic bottle jack under the motor, under the far side -
away from the pulley.
6) I inserted a 3-foot-long 2x2 above the motor, to the far side of
the cabinet.
7) I pulled the board down, levering the motor into a level position
without bending anything fragile on the motor.
8) With my other hand, I used a square along the motor mount to make
sure the motor was level (perpendicular to the frame).
9) I held the board in place with my first hand, and tightened the
bolts with my free hand.
10) After letting go, I checked the parallelism and belt tension. If
wrong, I repeated until it was right.


--
Sending unsolicited commercial e-mail to this account incurs a fee of
$500 per message, and acknowledges the legality of this contract.