Craftsman 2x42: Slower, more powerful, and 2x72

J

jawilder

Joined
Jun 27, 2006
Messages
2,331
Last night I modified my old Craftsman 2x42 to use 2x72 belts. I'm sure you've seen this before but I thought I'd show you how I did it using one piece of 2x2 angle iron. I think the pictures are pretty self explanatory but I'll answer any questions you have.

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My next plan is to replace the 1/2 hp motor with a 2 hp VS DC motor.
 
I have one that had its motor burn out and was thinking of doing something similar. Good setup!
 
Did it mess up the tracking any? I've been thinking about doing this exact thing for a while now but I've been scared to mess up the tracking. I just finished modding mine with a 1 1/2 hp Baldor three phase motor that I put a cheap VFD on. Its awesome. I have so much more torque now and, of course, the variable speed. If I could do this mod I'd have a poor man's 72"!
 
Can you give more detail, length etc..and where you seperated the arm.
 
Before I gave mine away I was thinking of adding a motor and step pulleys as well as the 72" conversion. I ended up buying a Bader instead.
 
PCL said:
Can you give more detail, length etc..and where you seperated the arm.
Click to expand...

I cut the upright bracket just above the top hole for the platen so that I could still use the platen if I wanted to. The actual length that I increased it is 15.5" and used a piece of angle iron that is 24.5". To get that measurement, I first cut out a notch in one end of the angle iron so that the tracking assembly could be bolted on then I clamped it to the bottom piece and found the best length that would fit both a new belt and a very stretched J-flex belt. 15.5" turned out to be the lucky number.

It didn't affect the tracking at all since the factory bracket is already squared and my angle iron fit over it perfectly. I used .25" angle iron since that is what I had on hand and it seems very rigid and stout.

If I want to use the platen, I will have to extend the platen out about 3/8" further as the belt doesn't touch the platen anymore. I plan to put on a ceramic/glass platen for that.

All in all, extending the bracket only took me about 30 minutes and was very easy to do. I don't know why I didn't do it sooner.
 
It sure is going to be nice having two 2x72's working together so I don't have to change belts and tooling nearly as often.
 
I was thinking of converting mine to a smaller drive wheel. The lower ratio would give it more torque at the same time as slowing it down. I just couldn't think of an easy way to take up the new found drive belt slack... but if its that easy to convert it to 2x72, could get two birds with one stone.
 
I think you would have a hard time finding a wheel to fit it. The craftsman wheel is quite different from other drive or contact wheels.
 
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