algale wrote:Word to the wise: vacuum out the gear box of your scroll saw periodically!
This morning I started the process of rehabbing the new toys. The first thing I noticed was that the hub of the scroll saw was very stiff to turn manually. I had noticed this when I inspected it but it was running, so I bought it.
I went through the scroll saw manual and the only real maintenance I found was to add a couple of drops of oil to the pump seal. No other oiling or greasing specified.
I opened up the access panel to the pump seal/gear box and immediately saw the reason for the stiffness.
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The gear box was clogged with sawdust and what I think was chips from acrylic pen blanks.
Funny that the manual wouldn't advise checking this, although if you add the oil annually, you would naturally see any accumulation. I could see, however, that the tape that holds the pump seal cover down was undisturbed, so I guess the prior owner never added oil to the pump seal so I'm guessing he never bothered to open it up. For point of reference, this is a 1996 scroll saw!
Even after I vacuumed out the gear box, there was still a fair amount of debris impacted in the teeth of the gears. I removed that with a nylon brush. After that, everything moved smoothly by hand so I oiled the pump seal and closed it up.
I used some Mother's mag and aluminum wheel polish on the table and it cleaned up nicely.
Chucked a blade and made a couple of test cuts. All is well.
At some point I may splurge and buy clear flip down cover that is broken off, but I think I got a real bargain!
I don't think maintenance was the previous owner's strong suit. In fact, he told me he managed to blow up six Shopsmith power heads. Expensive habit.
I expect there was a similar lack of maintenance on the free band saw and the strip sander. I will check them out later.
The next time I do some heavy cutting with my scroll saw, I'll have to do a thorough visual inspection. An inspection not of the machine but of the cuttings that are created.
Those don't look like the byproduct of a scroll saw. I believe that mine produces more dust than chips or shavings.
"Making Sawdust Safely" Dusty
Sent from my Dell XPS using Firefox.
dusty wrote:The next time I do some heavy cutting with my scroll saw, I'll have to do a thorough visual inspection. An inspection not of the machine but of the cuttings that are created.
Those don't look like the byproduct of a scroll saw. I believe that mine produces more dust than chips or shavings.
There is a dust collector hole in the bottom of the saw, beneath the front. Using a dust collector will certainly cut down on an accumulation of sawdust.
Octogenarian's have an earned right to be a curmudgeon.
Chuck in Lancaster, CA
charlese wrote:There is a dust collector hole in the bottom of the saw, beneath the front. Using a dust collector will certainly cut down on an accumulation of sawdust.
So, I finally got to taking a closer look at the band saw. This was a freebie the owner tossed in when I bought the scrolll saw, so even if it is a basket case it is no big deal.
I opened it up to find a massive mouse house. But no mouse. Brushed that out. More thorough cleaning to come.
Surprisingly the tires are in good condition and the wheels spin fine by hand (haven't powered it up yet).
But I noticed there are some non-standard parts.
First, the auto-track double bearing has been replaced with a single bearing:[EDIT: After checking my manual, I believe this was standard equipment on older band saws.]
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Looks like I will be ordering those bearings from Shopsmith.
Second, the leg tubes look odd.
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Are these the factory special band saw eccentric legs (with stop collars added)? [EDIT: Yes, they are!] Or are they a home made version? If they clean up in Evaporust and work, I'll keep them.
The cast iron table also needs Evaporust. And it is missing the table insert.
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algale wrote:I don't see one. Would love to know where it is.
If you had one, you wouldn't miss seeing it. I got my scroll saw from a friend who bought it from another. The port is directly below the saw blade. Maybe the dust port was added aftermarket.
I took a couple snapshots with my phone, but they were too big for the forum. I'll snap a couple more tomorrow and make them smaller.
Octogenarian's have an earned right to be a curmudgeon.
Chuck in Lancaster, CA
algale wrote:I don't see one. Would love to know where it is.
The gray version has one but if memory serves me the teal version did away with that feature. I don't own one to look at but I seem to recall noticing that when I looked at one.
Those chips do not look like they are from a scroll saw, perhaps some other tool was spraying them over there. I find that happening to me a far amount of the time, hand held routers are the worst at throwing chips. A couple of routers I have do have dust collection but adding a hose seems to make them a lot harder to use so while it sounded good in practice I didn't like it.
