8" jointer, 2hp motor, flat belt

[®smpr_fi_mac®]

I replaced the dead 1hp, 1ph, dual voltage motor on this nearly century old planer with a 56 frame, 2hp, 220v, 1ph motor.

For the longest time the new motor took ~15 seconds to reach full speed, and would stall more often than I thought it should. On a whim I opened the wiring box to make sure nothing was loose. I checked the layout and resecured all the wire nuts.

Now it only takes about 5 seconds. So something *was* wrong; I hope I didn't do any lasting damage.

Five seconds doesn't seem so long to me anymore, especially considering the inertia in that large, cast iron drive pulley and that of the wide leather belt. Also, the belt is fairly loose, so there's probably quite a bit of slippage early on. I'm gonna get an ammeter soon and measure the draw on startup.

I presented this to another member here via PM and he suggested I put it here for the rest to see; he thinks others might find it interesting.

https://youtu.be/LvTi3IHct9E

I'm checking out and probably buying an old 12" jointer on Sunday, so this one will (hopefully) be going up for sale in the near future.

[barryvabeach]

Brad,  i thought the video was interesting.  I know nothing about flat belt drives, but wonder if an idler wheel would help with the lack of tension in the belt.

[®smpr_fi_mac®]

It's loose because I don't have a proper mount that I can tighten.

Putting in an idler bearing would be more work than mounting it tighter!

[TDKPE]

You can probably get some good flat belt advice over on OWWM.com.  

As to checking the current draw while starting, even a cheap meter will tell you want you want to know.  Like this 600A unit from HD.  https://www.homedepot.com/p/Gardner-Bend...wAodFIUL1Q

There may be less expensive analog meters out there - I didn't look very hard.  Analog meters are much better for transients than digital, IMO.  It's hard or often impossible to get useful data from a digital display when things are changing quickly.  I would resist the temptation to buy a cheap digital meter.  They're good for many things, but motor current tends to wander around a bit, and that's just under steady loading.  

Since you do a fair bit of this sort of thing, a good enough ammeter is something you would get a lot of use out of.