Powermatic band saw assembly

when I set up my band saw (not a PM) I used a straight edge held against the larger pulley, and aligned the motor pulley to it… it sounds like yours are out of alignment.

-- San Diego, CA US Navy

It does sound like the two pulleys are not aligned to me as well. They should be aligned and in the same plane. The ribs on the belt should interlock with the grooves on the pulleys. It has been awhile since I put mine together but I seem to remember it took a little work to get the upper and lower pulleys aligned. As far as the belt tension goes I can measure about 1 inch of deflection at the middle of the belt when putting pressure on both sides of the belt.

-- With God's help all things are possible- even woodworking. Woodworking is not just a hobby, it is an (expletive deleted) expensive hobby.

Just give up and send the whole thing to me…..

-- "That Government is Best that Governs The Least."-Jefferson

My band saw- not a PM- has the motor mounted in such a manner that the motor can “twist” in the mounts. So the two pulleys can be aligned vertically (side to side) but the motor pulley shaft may not be parallel to the upper pulley shaft. This caused the belt to run off the lower pulley.

I have the Powermatic 14” bandsaw and the belt came off the first time I used it until I aligned the pulleys. This solved the problem for me and has been working perfectly for over a year and a half now. You will enjoy this excellent bandsaw.

-- Each and Every step of any project should be considered your masterpiece if you want the finished product to reflect the quality of your work. Greg Little

Same bandsaw, same problem. Getting the motor positioned properly is a major pain, but misalignment is what’s causing it. I spent an hour or so fighting it to get it close, even today it pops off one in a while. But I figure that trying to “fix” it will probably just make it worse :)

-- The Wood Nerd -- http://www.thewoodnerd.com

I too was having this same problem. I just received my new Powermatic 14” last week and couldn’t keep that belt on. Thanks to the prior comments about the motor alignment, I just spent a few somewhat maddening minutes aligning the motor housing, and everything now works great!

-- Bob Card

I have a Jet that sounds like it may be a similar setup. I never had the belt come off, but it was a huge pain getting the belt tensioned without the motor twisting. I never did get it “perfect” but I did get it fairly well aligned. I have been thinking about digging into it again to get it aligned better. I was thinking that I will have to cut a small piece of board (and shim it) to hold up the back side of the motor while I push down on the front of the motor to tension the belt. Very frustrating considering if they had just put a tighter tolerance on the mouting slots this would not have been an issue.

-- James - What's your excuse this time??

Instead of the wood shim, you may try a simpler approach. I just used blue painters tape. Here’s what I did. Once I got the tension right, I tightened the lower bolt on the front side of the motor, and only gently snugged the other three. This held the motor at the right hight relative to the belt, but allowed me to pivot the back side of the motor so that I could get the whole thing into alighment.

After I got the tension correcvt, I put the painters tape across the top of the motor housing where it meets the saw base. It touched the housing on the front side.

Naturally the back side tended to be a little lower, since the belt & pulley did not provide resistance on that side of the motor when I was pushing down. So I positioned the tape to be straight across, and then brought up that low end of the motor until it touched the tape.

I tightened all of the nuts and tested the saw. It worked perfectly.

-- Bob Card

I have the same PM saw and it was a hassle for me at first. It took a while but I finally got it.

Good luck!

-- Whether You Think You Can or You Think You Can't, YOU ARE RIGHT!!!