Cast iron woe

[Doug]

For longer than I care to admit my bandsaw fence has been difficult to re-adjust once the Bristol lever had been loosened from the fences previous locked setting , lifting the far end of the fence freed the carrier so I’d just got into the habit of doing this.
Yesterday as I had some spare time I decided to sort out a few bits in the workshop that had been annoying me & the fence fell into this category, on stripping the fence & carriage I found this.



Sorry for the poor photo but it shows where a small piece of cast iron has broken off the sliding carriage, the top arc should be the same as the bottom one.
Now I’m sure I’d have heard a piece of cast iron rattling in the cyclone if I’d hoovered it up :eusa-think: & search as I might I couldn’t find the offending piece which when thinking about it wouldn’t have helped solve the problem as it would have been next to impossible to re-attach so as to be strong enough to take the force of the Bristol lever being tightened.

I thought for a second about getting a new carriage from Felder but then thought again :lol: so off I went to my engineering mates, he had a piece of steel with a hole of the right diameter so after much grinding, drilling & countsinking I came up with this.



Not perfect but after some more drilling & taping it was fitted to the carriage & then back to the workshop for a test fit.



After which it was disassembled thread lock applied & refitted along with the fence.



I don’t know if it was because I’d got used to it not sliding well but it seems to work better than I can remember it ever doing which left me wondering as I only bought the saw second hand a couple of years ago if it was already like this when I got it & it’s just got worse over that time :eusa-think: it would also explain why I couldn’t find the broken piece.

 

[AndyP]

You are lucky to have engineering mates that can do stuff like that. I feel sure you made it worth their while.

 

[Lurker]

Well done Doug,
Nice to effect a repair particularly if you can improve on the original.
I m sure that you will have a smile on your face every time it smoothly functions from here on.

 

[Doug]

You are lucky to have engineering mates that can do stuff like that. I feel sure you made it worth their while.

2 long cold days before Xmas draining 400l of oil from a tank then loading the oil & tank on a trailer, driving it to its new destination, unloading it, installing the tank & then re-filling with the oil stands me in good stead for the little jobs I need to do in my mates workshop Andy. I imagine I’ve earned enough credits with him for the rest of this year :lol:

 

[Doug]

Well done Doug,
Nice to effect a repair particularly if you can improve on the original.
I m sure that you will have a smile on your face every time it smoothly functions from here on.

I’m sure I will Jim, cheers

 

[9fingers]

Excellent recovery Doug and good to see the principle of favours on the slate is working well still.

Bob

 

[Cabinetman]

That’s a good fix Doug, looks most professional, it’s a similar setup to the fence on my tablesaw, every now and then it just stops sliding, nothing broken just needs a little WD40.

 

[AJB Temple]

Neat.

 

[Mike G]

I like this Doug. Working with cast iron: difficult. Working with steel: much easier.

 

[Doug]

Thanks chaps.

good to see the principle of favours on the slate is working well still.

Much my preferred way to trade Bob, though I lost my car mechanic mate a couple of years ago it’s a nasty shock paying full garage prices after 20+ years of mates rates :shock: