Switching drive belts to power band style

I have an old 36" bandsaw that was converted from line shaft to electric drive. The motor sheave is variable. Try as I might, I have not succeeded in setting it so both belts are equally engaged. When starting, the 5HP motor draws over 100 amps.
I need to get rid of the sheave, and while I am doing this, would appreciate and opinion on changing the belts to a Gates notched PowerBand style.
Is this a good idea, and would I need to replace the driven sheave with a different style of sheave to accommodate the PowerBand?

My saw has a support arm with a third bearing on the outside of the driven sheave, so I only want to take it apart once.

I have a 3 belt drive on my 16" Laguna Sheartech planer. I would like consider the same as the factory belts are not notched and the radius much tighter on both sheaves.

Thanks for any advice.

Dn

Don,

I'll make some comments but I'm not really sure I understand your situation. I prefer cogged belts to traditional V-belts, they do seem to conform to a little tighter radius and seem to transmit a bit more horsepower. If you are speaking of a two or three rib, single back belt..I would say no. They are suppose to transmit more horsepower I believe but the really need perfect alignment and pretty good tension and because of the single back seem to be pretty stiff.

I babysat a 36" resaw with a 25hp motor and, if I recall, five metric V-belts. This machine would constantly eat belts regardless of how much attention was given them. The final solution was a soft start! That allowed proper belt tension and didn't allow the belts slip and glaze and fail after a full current start. If you can get those big bandwheels up to speed gradually it doesn't take much oink from the belts to keep them going.

Stuart

Thanks Stuart. I will try to clarify and share some recent learnings.
My saw does not see heavy use and, so far, is not tearing up belts.

My main concern is the 2 belts traveling at slightly different speeds, as this suggests to me that one belt is carrying most of the load all of the time.

From Stan Riddles blog at Vibralign (V-Belt Alignment of a Variable Pitch Sheave to a Fixed Pitch Sheave - VibrAlign, he states that the variable pitch sheaves should only be used temporarily to confirm system requirements, then replaced by the correct fixed sheave.

So I need to replace the variable pitch sheave with a fixed one.

Someone put a 16" 3 groove sheave on the wheel shaft. The original casting was designed for a 14" tight pulley. To accommodate the 16" sheave they gouged out the outboard support arm. And just for fun, they made a bushing out of pipe! I replaced this mess with a 14" sheave, had the shaft cleaned up. Resizing the driven sheave required more HP to make it go. I installed a 5HP motor and new starter.

As I think I have to replace the variable pitch sheave, I will return to the 16" 3 groove sheave, install a 4.75" 3 groove driver and 3 cogged B77 belts.

This should make starting the saw a little easier on the motor and starter.

Does this make sense.

Thanks

Don

So I spoke with a very knowledgeable power transmission person, who advised I simply replace the B belts with BX. He even suggested trying only one belt as it should easily handle the load and possibly reduce any other anomalies that could occur when you have more than one tool doing the same job. IE, more belts, more variations. I did not think that an un-necessary drive belt costs power. I am changing the 3 M58 belts on my Laguna planer to the 3VX58 style. Why don’t the OEM’s put good belts on?
Don


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Don-

Please put a location in your title block.
city preferred, but at least a state is part of the the site owners requirements.

smt

Fixed. Don't know why I missed all of that when I registered.