Congratulations to John Vreede for another insightful post that keeps us focused on the practical issues, like the fact that our HF 4 X 6 saws never need the power transmission capacity of any of the belts we are discussing, regardless of the belt type or pulley geometry. His earlier post was also valuable because it pointed out that a lot of the belt associated vibration problems with the HF band saw are related to the flimsy construction of the HF motor mount and sheet metal stand. If I think of the relative structural integrity of my Burke #4 mill or Atlas 10” lathe, where the spindles run in Timken roller bearings mounted in iron castings, it’s pretty obvious why we have vibration issues with the HF band saw.

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Congratulations to Robert Downs, too, for not commenting on link-belts versus V-belts and risking reopening that long-running and inherently inconclusive thread. BUT… I use link belts on the Burke and the Atlas because, in both cases, the original belts broke when I was in the middle of a job and I didn’t want to tear down a perfectly good spindle assembly to replace the standard V belts. I don’t use link belts on any of my power tools that permit access to the belts without tearing down the spindle. In one recent case, I had a V belt fail on a jointer in the middle of a late Saturday night rush to finish a Christmas present. After a few minutes of despair, I realized I could remove one of the link belts from the lathe or mill and adjust its length to fit the jointer. Once the job was done and my V belt store was open, I put the proper V belt back on the jointer. Since then I keep a length of link belt in the shop, just in case. I don’t have an opinion about whether the link or traditional V belt is better. It doesn’t really matter in a non-production hobby shop.

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Sorry for risking reopening that horrible thread, Robert.

SAE 85W90.? The real problem with the later saws made in China instead of Taiwan is that there is a fair probability that the gearbox will contain swarf (metal shavings).? So I would just play it safe, lay the saw over at an angle (so that half of the oil doesn’t run out on the floor as soon as you break the seal on the cover) and clean out the gear box.? The newer the saw is, the more likely that is what you will find.

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