Shopsmith Forums

dusty wrote:That is a neat solution to a possible irritant. I may have to do the same thing for the miter gauge that I use on the belt sander. Thanks Ed.

My miter gauges are a bit over twenty years old. This may be a difference introduced over time. However, what appears to be an insert in mine does not seem to be translucent. It looks vaguely like a small helicoil but there is no tang.

Hmmmm. It is looking more and more likely that my bar have been repaired by a prior owner.

Does any one else have a miter bar with the mystery material as shown in the photos above?

algale wrote:Interesting, Ed. But I think Dusty said his had an insert as well. My 520 was made Jan. 2001. How old/new are your miter bars?

Al

One is older, the machine was a 1979 upgraded to a 510 sometime after '86. The other two are in your time frame, early 2000's, I have to look when I did that 500 to 520 upgrade to be sure, the last one was I think 2002.

Ed

My 520 looks like Ed's in post #8.

algale wrote:Hmmmm. It is looking more and more likely that my bar have been repaired by a prior owner.

Does any one else have a miter bar with the mystery material as shown in the photos above?

Well the jury is no longer out. Without question, the mystery material in my miter bar was a previous owner's repair.

Here is the old miter bar, front and rear, showing the mystery material.
[ATTACH]16535[/ATTACH]
[ATTACH]16534[/ATTACH]
I received my new miter bar today and there is no mystery material or other insert in the miter bar. As can be barely seen in the photo, the threads are cut directly into the miter bar.
[ATTACH]16532[/ATTACH]
In addition, when I compared the screw from the new miter bar to the old, the old screw is shorter, which I suspect means part of it was sheared off.
[ATTACH]16533[/ATTACH]
I believe the mystery material in my old miter bar was probably epoxy put there by the previous owner after stripping/ripping the screw out of the miter bar by putting too much stress on the washer.

algale wrote:Well the jury is no longer out. Without question, the mystery material in my miter bar was a previous owner's repair.

Here is the old miter bar, front and rear, showing the mystery material.
[ATTACH]16535[/ATTACH]
[ATTACH]16534[/ATTACH]
I received my new miter bar today and there is no mystery material or other insert in the miter bar. As can be barely seen in the photo, the threads are cut directly into the miter bar.
[ATTACH]16532[/ATTACH]
In addition, when I compared the screw from the new miter bar to the old, the old screw is shorter, which I suspect means part of it was sheared off.
[ATTACH]16533[/ATTACH]
I believe the mystery material in my old miter bar was probably epoxy put there by the previous owner after stripping/ripping the screw out of the miter bar by putting too much stress on the washer.

Save that miter bar. Except for that one feature, it will work fine. Consider the belt sander for a home.

dusty wrote:Save that miter bar. Except for that one feature, it will work fine. Consider the belt sander for a home.

Great idea! Now, which one of you guys volunteers to tell my wife I need to buy a belt sander in order to use it with my old miter bar!!

Yup. I'm sadly beltsander-less (anybody got a spare they want to unload?). Even if I had the belt sander though, I'd probably still use the new miter bar with its attached gauge/protractor and just slide the bar in backwards rather than go through the hassle of swapping bars or buying a second gauge/protractor.

Meanwhile, I'll keep the old miter bar and try to figure out a use for it. A cross cut sled would be the most obvious but the bar is a little short for that, in my opinion.

algale wrote:Great idea! Now, which one of you guys volunteers to tell my wife I need to buy a belt sander in order to use it with my old miter bar!!

Yup. I'm sadly beltsander-less (anybody got a spare they want to unload?). Even if I had the belt sander though, I'd probably still use the new miter bar with its attached gauge/protractor and just slide the bar in backwards rather than go through the hassle of swapping bars or buying a second gauge/protractor.

Meanwhile, I'll keep the old miter bar and try to figure out a use for it. A cross cut sled would be the most obvious but the bar is a little short for that, in my opinion.

I will! Tell me how I can best contact her. I'll tell it to her straight. You need a belt sander.

Here is my $.02 since you said you feel the miter bar is too short for a sled.

Now that you have the NEW miter bar....I would drill out the mystery hole in the old miter bar and tap the next screw size up (#10).

Then replace the original 8-32 screw with a 10-32 and you have yourself a new usable miter bar...

Just thinking out loud

Geo

[quote="eagleta2"]Here is my $.02 since you said you feel the miter bar is too short for a sled.

Now that you have the NEW miter bar....I would drill out the mystery hole in the old miter bar and tap the next screw size up (#10).

Then replace the original 8-32 screw with a 10-32 and you have yourself a new usable miter bar...

Just thinking out loud ]

And if the head on the 10-32 screw is too thick, it can be filed/ground down.

[quote="eagleta2"]Here is my $.02 since you said you feel the miter bar is too short for a sled.

Now that you have the NEW miter bar....I would drill out the mystery hole in the old miter bar and tap the next screw size up (#10).

Then replace the original 8-32 screw with a 10-32 and you have yourself a new usable miter bar...

Just thinking out loud ]



You took the words right out of my mouth...
Of course you do NOT want to repair it until AFTER you convince the wife that you need a new one and have the new one safely in hand.


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