3650 Motor Mounting -- Instructions a little Screwy?

[imported_Greg Nold]

Just finished installing motor on my TS3650 Saw, and wondered if anyone else had similar problems following the instructions. Being a technically inclined person (and a veteran as far as assembling all sorts of things) it was pretty obvious to me that the weight of the motor is what keeps tension on the belt, wheter the blade is in the fully-raised or fully-lowered position. However, if one follows the directions to the letter, there will zero tension on the belt when the blade is in the fully-lowered position... makes no sense at all! Manual says to first raise blade all the way up, then 'lift motor up until edge of washer is even with the edge of slot.' Manual then directs you to pull the motor out on its sliding pins until there is no slack in the belt, then tighten sliding pin bolts while still keeping edge of washer even with the edge of the slot. I did this several times for the sake of making every attempt to comply with the instructions, but the result was the same... zero tension on the belt when blade is fully lowered, simply because by holding the edge of washer even with the edge of the slot (as illustrated) the mount is already at its aft limit of travel.

This is one of those things I could have figured out for myself without a manual, and basically I ignored the seemingly erroneous instructions and did it my way, with the bottom-line result being that the motor now pulls tension on the belt from its weight alone, both in the fully-raised and fully-lowered position. Squeezing the belt until its top and bottom touch yields the results outlined in the manual... the motor will freely pivot. Is there something here I'm not seeing? My wife delights in pointing out to me that something can be so obvious to everyone else yet I'll still be boneheaded enough to miss it, so I figured I'd ask since so many of you have already assembled and worked the bugs out of your saws. Did any of you 3650 veterans have similar experiences with hanging the motor? Just curious.

Thanks!

Greg Nold

[imported_ByteButcher]

I ignored that part of the manual as well. Other sections also led me astray. Most troublesome was the rail alignment and shimming. My extension wings were not machined very square, so I needed as many as 3 shims on some of the bolts. The net result was that fence wound up tighter on one end than the other because the rails were not parallel. I remounted them starting with an equal number of shims on the center section. Then I measured shims for the bolts at the extensions. The rails came out perfectly parallel and straight that time. Another thing I would change is putting the Herculift brackets on the legs early on while the saw is still upside down. That would be better than laying on your belly trying to mount them. As manual go, this one is readable and detailed, but I'm not sure it was worth the all the time to read it. I could have assembled it in half the time with just a few exploded views showing where all the fasteners go. A short list of important points would also help for those items that might not be obvious at first - e.g. Adjust motor position so it puts puts tension on belt in full down blade position and does not exceed the limits of motion in full up blade position. It should be take no more than 2 minutes to read through the complete list and confirm you have completed all the important adjustments and safety critical items.

[imported_Greg Nold]

Thanks Bytebutcher. In its class I give the saw an 'A', but the manual only gets a 'B-'. I agree with you also on the Herculift assembly.

Greg

[imported_jaslfan]

Hey, someone at one of my local HD's must have followed the book 'cause I just saw a 3650 there today that had no tension on the belt with the blade down. I thought they had screwed up.