Changing pulley on a Family Sew motor

[mcdoug]

I have a Family Sew 550 that came with a 75mm pulley, and I need to change it to a 50mm. I have a pulley that should fit, but it's really very tight and won't easily slide on. I don't want to force it for fear of breaking. Is there some trick to getting these pulleys on the motor shaft?

Thanks,

Doug M

[kgg]

9 minutes ago, mcdoug said:

have a pulley that should fit, but it's really very tight and won't easily slide on. I don't want to force it for fear of breaking. Is there some trick to getting these pulleys on the motor shaft?

Mic the size of the shaft and the size of the hole in the pulley. Could be that the shaft is metric and the pulley is english. Like your 50mm pulley is .8mm smaller then 2 " but most would consider the 50mm to be a 2 " pulley. Maybe try dremel tooling the hole in the pulley a little larger.

kgg

[JJN]

I bought four 50mm pulleys on ebay that were shipped from China. The total was $9.28 for all four including shipping. I didn't expect much, but they were decent quality and very usable. The problem was they were too tight on the motor shaft like you are describing with yours. The hole was cast on these pulleys, not finished with a drill. We chucked the pulleys in a lathe and ran a boring bar through them to clean them up. They work perfect now. I think a drill on a drill press would work good too. Measure your motor shaft with a caliper and get a drill bit to match.

[mcdoug]

Thanks guys! I don't have a lathe or a drill press, but I do have a dremel and a sanding drum. I'll give the dremel a try. When I mic the shaft and the pulley, the pulley is about .5mm too small. Shouldn't take much to work.

Doug M

[Wizcrafts]

Bore out the hole in the pulley with a bit that is the closest good fit. You will need to use a caliper to figure out if you need SAE or Metric to get it to fit. That's what our dealers do when they sell you a Family Sew motor with the 50mm pulley already on it. Of course, they have special drill bits that bore an exact diameter to fit on the motor shaft.

You could have saved all this running around if you bought the motor with the 50mm pulley installed from our dealers.

[Pintodeluxe]

The 45mm pulleys I got off eBay were about 2 bucks each, and fit the Rex / Family servo just right.

If it's not easy to modify, just order another pulley.

Good luck.

[DrmCa]

If you fit pulleys to shafts often, look for a set of adjustable reamers, but stay away from the soft made in China or India fakes.

I bought one of those fakes from KBC Tools in Mississauga, Canada, to compliment an incomplete Made in the UK set I had, and the the square shank twisted as soon as I started rimming. Returned it and the salesman said yes, we know... Why sell them then?

[CowboyBob]

22 hours ago, Wizcrafts said:

Bore out the hole in the pulley with a bit that is the closest good fit. You will need to use a caliper to figure out if you need SAE or Metric to get it to fit. That's what our dealers do when they sell you a Family Sew motor with the 50mm pulley already on it. Of course, they have special drill bits that bore an exact diameter to fit on the motor shaft.

You could have saved all this running around if you bought the motor with the 50mm pulley installed from our dealers.

We don't have any problems with the pulleys fitting,we order them with the small pulley.

[jrjr2u]

What is the shaft size on the Familysew motors?

 

[CowboyBob]

19 hours ago, jrjr2u said:

What is the shaft size on the Familysew motors?

 

14mm