table alignment

[Ed in Tampa]

Dusty
Let me tell you my sad story:(

I decided to drill out the holes, however my SS is my drill press and I was fixing the trunnion that was part of my table (drill press).

I have another table but without any fence rails. No problem I will just mount that table and drill out my trunnion.

The drill bit stuck:eek: Even though I thought I had proper support the trunnion was ripped out of my hand which of course hurt a lot, then it swung around and hit my hand, which of course really hurt a lot. Right now my index finger feels like it was pulled from it's socket and muscle on the back of my thumb is tender. I said "oh shucks!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

I finished drilling using a 2x4 fence backed with other wood so it rested against the way tubes, then I held the trunnion fully supported against the 2x4. Of course the drill never stuck again and the rest of the drilling was totally uneventful. Tell that to my index finger that is now an inch longer having had the trunnion yanked from it.

Now I wish instead of messing around I left the whole thing alone and called SS to see if they would make my misdrilled trunnion right or not. I think I'm going to stop reading this forum , If I hadn't read it I would never have looked at the trunnion. If I had never read it I would not of thought of drilling out my trunnion. If I had never read it my index finger and thumb on my left hand won't be hurting right now.

In any case if my hand is working tomorrow I will try to align my machine.

By the way did you have any problems getting the bolts that hold the trunnion to the table to start straight. I must have messed with them for 20 minutes as they wanted to cross thread. I kept playing until finally they just threaded in with finger pressure. I don't know if mine are the exception rather than the rule but be real careful. If you install these bolts and they don't tighten up with finger pressure they are probably cross threaded. Be real careful don't get tempted to force them or you will strip the holes.
Ed

[a1gutterman]

OUCH! Ed, I Hope your hand is oakay!

[Ed in Tampa]

Thanks Tim!
I hope it is okay too. I can't find any one place on my index finger that hurts worst than anywhere else but it feels real strange. It likes to be half bent. If I straighten it or bend it, it hurts. That finger was wrapped around the trunnion when it got pulled loose so I suspect the joint is not happy or a tendon got stretched.
All those I seek comfort from look at it and say, "it isn't swollen, it will be okay." I keep trying to convince people it hurts.

It was a really stupid thing to do. I totally know better but I thought I had it held so it couldn't pull free. Surprize suprize not only did it pull free it swung around and smacked my hand.

The thing that makes me really mad is I had my table within .001 of parallel before I started to mess. I just had to see if my trunnion was drilled properly and when it wasn't I just had to drill it. I act like I have too much time on my hands yet I have a hundred things I need to do.

[johnmccrossen]

I understand how easy it is to take a shortcut even when you know better. I have been nursing a damaged Achilles tendon now for 4 months (in a cast for past 6 weeks) due to a lack of thinking about possible consequences when taking what in hindsight was an obvious and risky shortcut. I find that the brainf**ts seem to increase as I get older so I have learned the hard way (again) to challange myself to slow down and think about what I'm doing before taking action.

Hopefully you will not have any long term problems with the hand injury and thanks for sharing your misfortune as a reminder to everyone to think about "what if".

John McCrossen

[Ed in Tampa]

Well the hand is still there this morning. My thumb appears to be none the worst for the experience but my index finger was really really stiff.

Dusty I wanted to make one comment I forgot last night. I compared the two trunions like you did and the only difference I could detect between the two is one has the table stop pin part #150 and the other doesn't. Also the back trunnion has the corner filed for clearance for the fence rail bolt and nut.

I'm real tempted to use the front trunnion from my spare table instead of using the one I drilled. When I drilled the holes I was using drills to step up I started with 7/16 and then 1/2 inch because my 1/2 drill was about shot. I got the left hole drilled completely but the right hole I only got to 7/16 fully. The half inch bit gave up about half way through and my finger was hurting.

I have remounted the trunnion and it seems to have plenty of movement but do you think I would be smarter using the spare front trunnion or just not worry about the one hole being about 1/16 too small?

The other thing I would really like to know is did you have a hard time getting the bolts back into the table? I'm probably over thinking this but my bolts were buggers to start and I'm wondering if that telling me I'm tightening the them too tight and the threads in the table are start to deform.
I never liked the idea of steel bolt into aluminum.

Frankly I think since I was able to align my table to within .001 of parallel I think the whole project was an adventure with no real purpose.

Let me know what you think.
Ed

[weelildaddy]

Good Morning Ed

I'm another one that had small holes in the outfeed trunion and I redrilled mine also. I'm sorry you did so much damange to your hand. I drilled mine with a progression of small to larger drill bits with the trunion clamped on another drill press. Afterwards, I removed all the burrs and lightly sanded all mateing surfaces with 400 grit sandpaper on top of an absolutely flat surface then reinstalled both trunions. I had no problems cross threading but I did start them by hand only. The aluminum is very soft. In a weak moment, I bought one of thoes Master Plates to use with my dial guage and it has made alighment so much simpler for me. I'm also in love with Wixey for setting angles and in trying to out do it with traditional methods, it seems to win every time and I have complete confidence in it. Wixey has a new electronic protractor out too and of course I had to get that also. I hope you recover rapidly but if in doubt, you might want to have it xrayed just out of curosity. Being a retired x-ray tech makes me say things like that.

Arno

[ldh]

For what it's worth, I bolted and screwed the rear trunnion to some 3/4 ply and clamped it to the table of my SS 500 then aligned a 3/8 bit with the 3/8 hole in the trunnion. I then moved the headstock back and replaced the bit with a 1/32 larger bit and worked my way upto the required 1/2. The 520 table aligned quite nicely when I finished. I had a trunnion on order from SS so I think I have wasted my money. As soon as I can afford a gallon of gas I may take the new one back down to the post office and return it.
ldh

[dusty]

ed;

If you have no immediate use for the spare front trunnion, I'd agree. Reassemble using it. I did that for about a three week test run before I drilled. Drill out the other trunnion when you feel that you are ready to tackle the task.

Yes, I have trouble starting the trunnion bolts. I've run a tap into the bolt holes on the table and that helped but did not completely clear the problem.

You'll also have to file that corner off on the front trunnion or you'll have some interference fit. The interference that I experienced was so bad I could not get that trunnion mounted without removing the center mounting screw for the 520 rear rail.

[charlese]

Sorry Ed about your misfortune! Only discovered the new posts in this thread a few minutes ago.

For others contemplating drilling out those holes - consider drilling them from the horizontal mode, and clamp that trunnion down to the table, with the fence (and wood pad) back-up. This way it will be a hands free operation.

[dusty]

For others contemplating drilling out those holes - consider drilling them from the horizontal mode, and clamp that trunnion down to the table, with the fence (and wood pad) back-up. This way it will be a hands free operation.

Charlese;

You have got to have some pretty nifty tricks up your sleeve. I hope that you are inclined to share at least one of them.

The one I am really interested in is the one you would use to drill the holes in your Shopsmith main table trunnion with the Shopsmith main table in the horizontal boring mode.