LumberMate Mark IV Drive Belt Setup

[MrCGates]

Good morning,

Just got a new belt for my LumberMate Mark IV. It's the B77 as recommended by some of the forum posts. What's the best procedure for setting up the wheels and pulley? My belt seems to twist. After going through the pulley on the motor, through the guide pulley, and then it twists onto the wheel. We've tried to adjust the angles of the wheels to line them up with the motor pulley, but it seems when we get the pulleys lined up correctly, the blade runs off the back of the wheels. What are we doing wrong? I realize the answer is probably "Everything", but any help would be helpful. It seemed to be fine for the past year or so, until we tried to fine-tune things.

 

[Sawyer Rob]

I'll take a stab at this one...

Adjust the "properly tensioned" band wheels until you get the blade tracking properly, while you turn the wheels by hand.

Then adjust the motor to put the clutch pulley where it needs to be, that includes adding shims behind the clutch if that's what's needed to get everything right.

Lastly, tension the belt using the belt tensioner.

Check for bad bearings or bearings needing grease along the way...

SR

 

[MrCGates]

Do you tension the blade first, and then adjust the blade tracking? And when you say "Blade tracking", do you mean the adjustments for the wheels?

 

[Sawyer Rob]

Do you tension the blade first, and then adjust the blade tracking? And when you say "Blade tracking", do you mean the adjustments for the wheels?

You have to get the band running in the right place on the wheels while tensioned. A band that's not tensioned will not run in the same place on the wheels that a tensioned band will. Tracking HAS to be on a tensioned band as that's how you will be running the mill while sawing...

Yes, blade (band) tracking = where the band is running on the wheels and there's an adjustment on the wheels to get it in the right spot.

SR

 

[MrCGates]

We got it running. On one wheel, the blade is sticking out from the wheel a quite bit more than the other wheel. Turns out the belt guide (the pulley that guides the belt to the drive wheel) was worn, and causing the belt to move towards the outside of it. Then the belt would bend and cause mayhem. We flipped the guide pulley to the side that's not warn, and it worked. I'll have to get a new one of those. It seems like it should be much easier to adjust. We'll have to keep working on it. It's running for now, and we've got another log drying. Good times!