Shopsmith Forums

Cannot see the area where more severe 'wear' occurs, but that which is visible looks fairly minor.

Realize that once the leg is straightened, the wear(mashing) will interfere with the worm gear and will likely require dressing up the gear teeth with a file to remove the interference. This can become an exasperating task as very small interferences cause it to bind. Looking from the sides so as to observe the tooth contact will indicate where further filing is needed. Look for where the porkchop teeth contact both a leading edge on the worm gear in addition to contacting a trailing edge of another 'tooth' on the worm gear.

Everyone: Mike, Bill V, Bill Mayo, and JPG (in no particular order), thank you all for your suggestions and help! I separated the pork chop from the dial arm (what's the name of this thing?) and it looks like bad news all around:

The teeth on the pork chop are severely worn (even I can tell).
BOTH arms are now slight bent in one direction. I used JPG's advice to use a vice to bend the arm back, which worked great and with no effort at all. But I believe I was not gentle enough removing the roll pin and bent both arms (f$@#%*!!!).

Looks like I'll be on ebay looking for a new one, or maybe I'll get it directly from mothership...but that's not going to stop me from trying to get what I have as squared away as possible!

Pictures:

No, the pork chop(quadrant gear) is NOT badly damaged. Realize the current wear areas are NOT where future contact will occur with straightened legs. Ideally the worm gear is centered over the quadrant gear.

BTW nice vise!

Although not as risk free as squeezing with the vise, the legs can be formed independently. Just gotta get the pressure points correct. Spacers and the vise will still work.

I agree: the pork chop's teeth look salvageable to me with a little judicious filing. Mine were probably about the same when I did Bill's fix. Everything has worked perfectly since.

JPG wrote:No, the pork chop(quadrant gear) is NOT badly damaged. Realize the current wear areas are NOT where future contact will occur with straightened legs. Ideally the worm gear is centered over the quadrant gear.

Good point. I won't give up on the assembly yet!

JPG wrote:BTW nice vise!

Thanks! I found it in my basement, not sure whose it is (but it's mine, now)!

JPG wrote:Although not as risk free as squeezing with the vise, the legs can be formed independently. Just gotta get the pressure points correct. Spacers and the vise will still work.

I can think of a few ways to try and bend them back independently. Hopefully I can find some time soon.

algale wrote:I agree: the pork chop's teeth look salvageable to me with a little judicious filing. Mine were probably about the same when I did Bill's fix. Everything has worked perfectly since.

Time to find a file...how did you about filing your teeth down?

calvin wrote:

algale wrote:I agree: the pork chop's teeth look salvageable to me with a little judicious filing. Mine were probably about the same when I did Bill's fix. Everything has worked perfectly since.

Time to find a file...how did you about filing your teeth down?

Just grabbed a file and took a few light passes. The material is pretty soft, IIRC, and responded well.

Just as a point of reference, here is what badly worn porkchop teeth look like.

http://www.shopsmith.com/ss_forum/maint ... t9053.html

mountainbreeze wrote:Just as a point of reference, here is what badly worn porkchop teeth look like.

http://www.shopsmith.com/ss_forum/maint ... t9053.html

Ah! Thanks for the reference, I am finding that for different metal parts, "worn" can mean vastly different things, so I'm never sure if what I'm looking at qualifies.

Got the arms straightened out. I also took a stab at filing the teeth but the file I have is too large, so I'm holding off on doing anymore of that until I get my hands on something smaller.

I ended up using the outer barrel of the quill and a hammer handle to get enough leverage to finely bend the arms. I tried it with just the quill barrel and I ended up moving one of the arms from looking like \ to /!

No mods happening here, yet.

Close enough!