PDA

View Full Version : Lifetime belt rips apart.



mike reed
08-07-2006, 04:45 PM
:shock: I am new to this forum process but here goes anyway. I was using my machine this past week when a board failed to measure properly. It would not feed. I removed the board to discover that the outboard drive belt had ripped about four inches beginning from the side nearest the control panel. I am now dead in the water with a growing backlog of projects.
Also of note I was cleaning out the wood debris from the cavity at the bottom of the machine on the side next to the control panel when I discovered a small metal wheel. (smaller than a dime) It has a raised neck so it is not a typical washer. Any ideas as to what this could have fallen from?
Thanks for the help!
Mike Reed

PS I will attempt to attach photos if I can figure out how to get it done.

pkunk
08-07-2006, 09:10 PM
I'd just call Carvewright ASAP and have it taken care of. From you pic it might be the board tracking wheel but, hey-they'll take care of it. :)

David M.
08-07-2006, 09:48 PM
I just had a similar failure last night, I called CW and spoke to Chris and was told it was an issue in the original part assembly and they are sending out not only the new sand paper, but the entire assembly for both sides.

Chris said in the mean time to cut (with a razer) just beyond the damage and remove the bad portion of belt, the machine will rebalance the remainig belt and your back in business, till the replacement part show. He said they have had to cut more than one belt this way to keep the machine running.

The little wheel I don't recognize, other than the 4 wheels on the main truck. Could it be one of those?

mike reed
08-07-2006, 10:14 PM
Hey Guys, thanks for the info. I will try the razor trick to try to get back in business. I will take a look at the truck to see if it is missing a wheel. I think it is not likely since the machine worked flawlessly until the belt got the tear. I will call CW tomorrow and maybe I can get the new assemblies since I have the luxury of being about a 35 minute drive from their offices. :wink:
This machine has loads of potential but in need of debugging as is any new device in it's infancy. There are software issues (to be expected) that need some adjustments. There are hardware issues as well. (at least in my humble opinion) The infeed and out feed tables and rollers are sub par. They have far too much flex and irregularities in them. (high spots and low spots all in the same table) I am not bashing just thinking out loud a little. All in all a versatile machine.
mike

David M.
08-08-2006, 12:32 PM
Hey Mike a question for you, what was your machine cutting when the failure happened, spacificly was the wood surface smoothe or was there a texture, such as a cedar fence picket?

mike reed
08-08-2006, 12:48 PM
David M.
I have carved on some red cedar in the past but when this malfunction occured I had red oak in the machine. After viewing the other posting about the belt riding against the edge I think that my machine must have been at that point and I just didn't notice it until it developed a tear. Then the last project I loaded caused the tear to grow to the point that it would no longer advance the board. I tried cutting the belt with a razor knife as someone else suggested but the rip is just too large to recover from. So I just need the fix that CW techs talk about and a new drive belt. It just appears that the alignment was the root cause. The belt looks as though it kept creeping toward the far left and an abbraision somehow got started. It looks like it tracked like one of my old belt sanders does on occasion. That is about all that I can say about it at this point.
mike reed