Sears table saw help

[Michael]

I have a (113.298762) Sears table saw.

I would imagine the design is much the same as any.

My question is....

I'm having constant problems with the alignment on the 2 pulleys for the drive belt.

One pulley is on the motor and the other on the saw blade shaft and they always move out of place after a while and cause the saw to make alot of racket.

When they are in line....the saw is very quiet.

First of all......(don't laugh)......are those keys supposed to be in the slots on each shaft?.....because I know that's what ends up moving around, the key.

These keys are angled and I don't get the design because they are bound to slip no matter how hard I tighten.

Can anyone put me in the right direction with this or have a fix?

I bought a couple of 5/8" shaft collars and thought I may be able to do a something with them.

Thanks.

[Duane Bozarth]

Don't understand -- angled where? The keys are square stock.

Probably the problem is they are cheap cast pulleys that are both not quite balanced and have bores that are larger than necessary and probably also not quite round. Consequently, they don't fit well as they should and vibration gradually loosens them. They then run loose for a while and that causes more wear which exacerbates the problem and so it goes...

If they are, in fact, a set of these cast pulleys, finding a replacement set of machined ones will probably fix the problem permanently.

[Jim]

And, a place that works on electric motors is apt to have just what you need. All keys I have ever seen are square, and, yes, you definitely need them. Jim

[Greg G]

This may be a pointless question, but isn't there a grub screw that is supposed to hold the pulley in position. Most have one. It's a small hex head allen screw. There should be a hole in the side of the pulley hub. Tighten it, but don't strip it out.

Never seen an angled one - they are usually square stock, and you definitely need it. That is what prevents the pulley from spinning on the shaft. There are tremendous rotational forces going on there... They *might* have used a woodruff key, but I've never seen one on a table saw.

Hopefully, I just did. :-)

I'd try to fix the problem with the original design if possible... Then try modification - there may be unseen caveats.

Greg G.

[John]

Perhaps also a little Loctite to help prevent the screw from loosening