Axminster CT150 Jointer Teething Troubles

[Zarrjazz]

Hello

Just a quick question, could someone who owns an Axminster CT150 planer give me an idea of the size the drive belt should be. I am sure mine is the wrong one as I cannot get it to fit no matter how much I move the motor. It could be the right size of course and I am just missing something, like a decent manual, so any tips would be appreciated. I do have the better manual for the Jet equivalent but that was no help with regards to the drive belt.

Cheers.

 

[RogerS]

Hi Zarrjazz and welcome.

I just took my top pulley cover off and ran a metal tape around the v-belt. I make it 95cm give or take the odd millimetre.

Let us know how you get on. Axminster TECHNICAL support is first rate and should be able to sort you out if your belt is the wrong size.

On a separate note, never ever move the planer using the infeed/outfeed tables - DAMHIKT - unless you want to go through the anguish of resetting them

Cheers

Roger

 

[Zarrjazz]

Hi Roger and thanks for taking the time to measure the belt on your machine. The belt I have is also approximately 95cm so I guess it is the correct size after all, glad I asked here first before calling Axminster. Do you have any tips on getting the belt on because I just cannot seem to get it to fit. Thanks also for the tip on not moving it by the tables, my machine is sitting on a nice mobile base so moving it around is not a problem. Getting it onto the base well that was a different story, talk about heavy.

Cheers.

Alex

 

[Zarrjazz]

I just had another thought. If the belt is the correct size could the pulley wheel on the motor be too big? I have raised the motor to it's highest point and I still cannot get the drive belt on. The pulley wheel is approximately 12cm in diameter and when compared to the photograph in the manual it does look as though it is too big.

Cheers.

Alex

 

[frank]

alex what about fitting a link belt you make it to what ever size you want

 

[RogerS]

Alex

I seem to remember having some difficulty myself and IIRC I undid all the bolts on the motor, fitted the belt and then rebolted the motor. Bit of a struggle but got there in the end.

EDIT: motor pulley dia 90mm, cutter pulley 62mm, distance between pulley centres (when belt fitted) 347mm. Approx amount of 'slot' visible above the motor bolts ( as seen inside the dust chute) 11mm

I'm assuming that you slacked the bolts off and slid the motor up to the top of these slots (apologies to grandma and her eggs)

Roger

 

[Zarrjazz]

Thanks again Roger for the measurements. It seems that I have definitely got a motor wheel that is too big. My cutter wheel is the same size as yours, 62mm, but the motor wheel is 120mm which is bigger than yours. So once I get Axminster to sort that I will carry on the assembly and hopefully find no more problems. Is it wrong to expect a machine costing nearly £500 to actually have gone through some quality control to eliminate these kind of errors? I can understand problems on the cheaper machines because you usually get what you pay for, guess I got the exception to that rule this time.

Cheers.

Alex

 

[Zarrjazz]

Hello

Well it turns out that the motor pulley wheel was too big and a replacement one that was the right size arrived this morning. Thanks to the assistance I got from the forum I was able to send Axminster both measurements so they knew I needed a new pulley wheel. Now onto the next problem, setting the tables parallel to the blades. Now I am assuming the blades are set correctly, only because I cannot undo the screws, and I have set the outfeed table parallel to the blades. I am having trouble setting the infeed table parallel to the outfeed, one end always ends up either higher or lower than the other so once again I would appreciate any tips the forum can provide.

Cheers.

Alex

 

[Les Mahon]

Alex,

I'm no expert in Planers, but you have to be able to undo the screws holding the blades, otherwise you will not be able to replace them :?:

I'll slip quietly away now and see what the more knowlegeable say, reading this thread reminds me that my P/t is in need of a serious bit of TLC.

Les

 

[RogerS]

Alex

When my Ct150 arrived I didn't need to do anything to the tables as they were all set-up. But then I moved it by the tables and the rest is history...

On the infeed table there are five twiddly bits.

1) underneath the infeed table is a black knob that locks down onto the screw thread used to adjust the height of the table during operation. Keep this slackened off while setting up.

2) ignore the black knob on the end of the screw thread mentioned in (1)

3) then you have another locking mechanism. I never really worked out quite what this does but while you are adjusting things slacken it off as well.

4 and 5) these are the boys. basically you need an allen key that fits the allen key and a spanner for the nut. When you loosen these the whole thing goes floppy as they keep it keyed in firmly to the main key ways that the infeed slides up and down on. (mechanical engineers and purists will have to put up with my technical terms )

Wind the infeed up so it is on zero, put your level from the outfeed table across to the infeed table. A long level is needed ..ideally one that spans the entire lenght of both in/outfeed. make sure you're not touching the blades (you shouldn't be but if you are crank the infeed up a little higher.)

NB any correspondence between the infeed scale and 'true' measurements is purely coincidental...but in reality is pretty close (at least on mine).

Now start tweaking the allen key/nuts. Your mission, should you wish to accept this, is to tweak these so that you have a level table and also one that does not bind on the key rails as you adjust its height.

When it's all level and tickkety boo, tighten off the nuts and re-check. then loosen the nuts and reset it a bit more as sods law says it moves slightly as you tighten up the nuts and so you'll need to compensate a little on the allen key.

That worked for me.

in operation I loosen the knob in (1) and (3), adjust the height of the table and then tighten them up to lock the table down.

Hope that helps

Forget what you heard about shimming etc as I've never found out how to take the table apart to do it.


Roger

 

[Zarrjazz]

Thanks once again for the help Roger I shall hopefully be sorting it out on Saturday that way I can take my time as I suspect it may take a while to get it right.

Alex,

I'm no expert in Planers, but you have to be able to undo the screws holding the blades, otherwise you will not be able to replace them :?:

Les

That thought had crossed my mind but I will cross that bridge when I come to it. The other reason for not fiddling with the blades was that my spanner is too short and my hand was rather close to the blades couple that with really tight screws one slip and, well I will leave that to your imagination. Once I get a longer spanner I will give it another go.

Cheers.

Alex

 

[Zarrjazz]

Yep it's me again. Well I was right about it taking a long time to get right and yes you've guessed it I have hit another problem. When I set the fence square near the blades on the outfeed table the part nearest the blades is square but the part furthest away from the blades is not, it's not out by much but there is a little daylight showing between the square and the fence. Now I have reached the conclusion that either the outfeed table is not level or the fence is warped. I am thinking it is the first one as the fence is a big lump of cast iron. Once again any suggestions would be gratefully received. Thanks for the instructions on levelling the tables Roger they where much better than the ones in the manual. One thing I have learned is that should this kind of thing happen again it will be either a replacement or a refund none of this mucking about with spare parts and such, in fact I will give it one more go to get it set up properly and if that fails Axminster will be getting another call asking for just that a replacement machine or a refund which I believe I am still entitled to, any help on that matter would also be appreciated.

Cheers.

Alex

 

[RogerS]

Alex

Never checked mine at the extremities. Surely the bit that matters is close to where the action is? How much daylight are you talking about?

Roger

PS I'll be out of the country until 23 July and so not much chance of any more replies :lol:

 

[Zarrjazz]

Not much really, I would need to use my feeler gauge to get an accurate measurement, and thinking about it I agree with you Roger as long as I can get it as square as possible where the action is it should work as intended and I have been getting some pretty square test pieces so I will recheck it all tomorrow and be done with it. I guess I am just getting a little bit paranoid after having quite a lot of effort to get something to work that really should have worked out of the box. The reason I had to loosen the gibs on the outfeed table in the first place was that they were done up so tight that when you turned the adjusting screw instead of moving the table the screw itself moved. This screw was sticking out the wrong side so there was nowhere to put the handle and there was no hole to put the pin so the handle could turn the screw and there was no pin. I received those parts from Axminster only to find out the pulley wheel was wrong. After sorting that out I then had to reset the tables so I think a little bit of paranoia is understandable. Anyway thank you for all your help Roger hopefully I can get it sorted.

Cheers.

Alex

 

[RogerS]

Sounds like you're almost there :lol: Bit of a pain, I know. Sounds like you got the Taiwanese equivalent of a 'Friday-nighter' :wink:

 

[Zarrjazz]

Ok I know Roger may not be able to answer this but perhaps someone else can. When I place my straight edge along the fence it deflects in the middle by 0.6mm and is therefore slightly concave. Now I am thinking this is wrong and it should be flat. I have asked Axminster for their take on this but I was wondering what other people think. Once again all help will be appreciated.

Cheers.

Alex

 

[dbpianos]

I realise that this a very old thread, but in case it's of interest to anyone else I had exactly the same experience with a CT150 fence. Axminster asked me to send a photo, which I did. (Quite tricky to do justice to a small deflection in a long, straight(ish) fence, but just about possible).

The fence was distinctly concave along its length, which in most circumstances wouldn't matter, as it wasn't twisted, but it shouldn't be like that. Axminster were able to replace it for me, and gave me a free set of blades by way of an apology.

David.