Cut the bracket today on the bandsaw out of a 3/4" block of aluminum. The Starrett bi-metal blade had no problem cutting clean and straight. I purposely cut a little wider of the mark than I could have as I wanted to give the belt sander something to do as this would be it's inaugural outing as well.
The belt sander, unlike the bandsaw, did not have offset legs, so alignment was an issue. Also, I noted a tendency to slip a little out of alignment as it was used. I think I'll need some adjustable collars for this SPT. Since there was still work to be done after the bandsaw, most of the time spent with the belt sander was with the 80 grit ceramic belt. May have left a little too much to clean up as the aluminum got really hot. The 120 grit finished things off in very short order. There was an issue with the sander listing slightly to the left but, other than that no issues were observed.
Also, this was the first test of my dust collector. I didn't use it while drilling yesterday as I had no dust collection port to attach to and the drilling was creating chips rather than dust so there was no great need for dust collections. I have a Rigid 6 hp shop vac connected to an Oneida Dust Deputy. Strong and very quiet. Did a very nice job on the bandsaw. I was less impressed with the belt sander. There was a lot more dust there left to be cleaned up than I had expected. The design of the collection port has scraping teeth in front of the vaccuum. The teeth look like they're deflecting the dust away from the vaccuum and on to the floor. Regardless, any dust that ends up in the Dust Deputy is dust I don't have to suck up later.
Final shaping on the mill begins tomorrow. Now that I have something close, I will bolt the new bracket in the car to directly observe where the work needs to be done. The less milling the better. The new tensioner is scheduled to be delivered on Tuesday so I only have a couple more days to get the bracket right.
All in all, a good debut for two of my SPT's. One step closer to getting my car running again.
First Stage Complete
Moderator: admin
Holsgo, when the job is finished, I plan on posting a picture of the original part and a picture of the fabricated replacement. Other than that, the only other thing I can think of that would have benefited from a picture was the clamping arrangement used on the drill press. Frankly, my focus has been on getting this job done right and on time rather than on a show and tell exercise. Do you have a specific question I can answer?holsgo wrote:If there are no pics it didn't happen.
Speaking of belt sander.
The belt sander has a dust collection upgrade if it from before 8/87. I have done this to my machine and it did help with dust collection. Here is the deal:
http://www.shopsmith.com/ownersite/cata ... pgrade.htm
The legs on mine are the old version where the height is adjustable but they do not have "off-set". The version of shopsmith you have may allow you to do some additional horizontal adjustment, or, you have the option of adding the eccentric mounting tubes. If you decide to order remember the price is each.
http://www.shopsmith.com/ownersite/item ... =Find+Item
The shaft alignment should be no more then 1/16".
This is just for your information.
Ed
The belt sander has a dust collection upgrade if it from before 8/87. I have done this to my machine and it did help with dust collection. Here is the deal:
http://www.shopsmith.com/ownersite/cata ... pgrade.htm
The legs on mine are the old version where the height is adjustable but they do not have "off-set". The version of shopsmith you have may allow you to do some additional horizontal adjustment, or, you have the option of adding the eccentric mounting tubes. If you decide to order remember the price is each.
http://www.shopsmith.com/ownersite/item ... =Find+Item
The shaft alignment should be no more then 1/16".
This is just for your information.
Ed
Ed, I appreciate the info. I don't have the elbow pictured in the dust port upgrade but, I do have the 2 1/2" collector. The legs on mine only required vertical adjustment and the collars are cheaper than the offset legs so I think I'll go that route. I don't mean to make it sound like I'm complaining about how the Shopsmith performed today. I'm just describing what I encountered during my initial experience with these tools. Bottom line, the Shopsmith got it's job done and I'm very happy about that. Now it's up to my Sherline to finish the job.reible wrote:Speaking of belt sander.
The belt sander has a dust collection upgrade if it from before 8/87. I have done this to my machine and it did help with dust collection. Here is the deal:
http://www.shopsmith.com/ownersite/cata ... pgrade.htm
The legs on mine are the old version where the height is adjustable but they do not have "off-set". The version of shopsmith you have may allow you to do some additional horizontal adjustment, or, you have the option of adding the eccentric mounting tubes. If you decide to order remember the price is each.
http://www.shopsmith.com/ownersite/item ... =Find+Item
The shaft alignment should be no more then 1/16".
This is just for your information.
Ed
Depending on the vintage of the belt sander it may have come with snap rings (on the legs) for vertical adjustment. The snap rings should be setting on the power mount and the adjustment is done via the setscrews on the sander. I've seen these mounted upside down with the snap ring touching the sander so you might want to check that. Could be you don't need the collars either.
Ed
Ed
Bracket Finished!
Finished the fabricated mounting bracket yesterday and installed it in the car today. It bolted up flawlessly, so the holes were both aligned and sized correctly. Everything cleared and the only issue left is whether or not it lines up with the tensioner. Guess I'll find out tomorrow. That's when the new tensioner is supposed to arrive. Here are a couple of pics, one of the original bracket and another of the fabricated replacement. With the exception of the flycutting, all other work was done on the Shopsmith:
Orignial Bracket
Fabricated Replacement
Orignial Bracket
Fabricated Replacement
Finally, I was able to back to working on the Shopsmith. The bracket I made on the Shopsmith is working perfectly but other issues resulted in another week of work on the car. At least it's running again. So, looking at the belt sander today, I took Ed's advise and checked the legs. Sure enough, they were in upside down! After reversing them, aligning them and tightening up a couple of bolts, the list to the left is greatly reduced. Thank's Ed.reible wrote:Depending on the vintage of the belt sander it may have come with snap rings (on the legs) for vertical adjustment. The snap rings should be setting on the power mount and the adjustment is done via the setscrews on the sander. I've seen these mounted upside down with the snap ring touching the sander so you might want to check that. Could be you don't need the collars either.
Ed
New Jointer Knife Sharpening Method
Still been busy working on my car lately but I was finally able to get around to the next thing on my Shopsmith restoration list, sharpening the jointer knives so I can put the jointer back together. I don't have the conical disk and sharpening jig that Shopsmith recommends using and at $125 versus $50 for a new set of knives, I wasn't particularly interested in that solution. However, I was able to find a way to sharpen the knives using my belt sander. I did a search of this forum to see if this method had been previously described and I did not see it so I will describe it here. The only tool necessary, other than Shopsmith tools, is a small drill press vise.
After measuring the angle of the knife blade and determining that it was 40 degrees, I set the table on the belt sander to 40. If your drill press vise is like mine, you will have to grind off a small portion of the vise so that the blade, rather than the vise makes contact with the belt. Use a course grit for this. Now, put a fine grit belt on the sander. As it turns out, the depth of the miter gauge slot is just right for aligning the blade with the vise. Place the blade in the slot and place the vise over the blade. Tighten the vise and the blade is now perfectly positioned for grinding. Set the miter gauge to 0 degrees. Place the miter gauge in the slot. Place the vise next the the miter gauge so that the gauge keeps the vise and the blade parallel to the belt. Turn on the Shopsmith and place the blade in contact with the belt. Use the miter gauge to slide the vise and blade from side to side to even out the use of the belt. Sparks will fly. Make sure that the sparks are evenly distributed across the entire length of the blade. If not, there is an alignment problem that must be addressed. If the sparks are even across the blade, you're in business. Periodically inspect the blade to see what's happening and stop when you're satisfied with the result.
It should be noted that I used ceramic belts for this procedure. I'm assuming that standard aluminum oxide belts will also work, but I don't know for sure.
I should also state that this procedure had the kinks worked out of it with just one of the blades and, as a result, that blade is now noticeably shorter than the other two. That's OK by me as I was expecting to spend some time aligning the blades in the head anyway. I should also note that I did not grind a secondary angle on the blades. Even though my blades did not have this angle, I would have given it a try but I would have had to grind off even more of my vise and I wasn't interested in doing that.
Anyway, I can finally reassemble, align, and test my jointer. Go Bears!
After measuring the angle of the knife blade and determining that it was 40 degrees, I set the table on the belt sander to 40. If your drill press vise is like mine, you will have to grind off a small portion of the vise so that the blade, rather than the vise makes contact with the belt. Use a course grit for this. Now, put a fine grit belt on the sander. As it turns out, the depth of the miter gauge slot is just right for aligning the blade with the vise. Place the blade in the slot and place the vise over the blade. Tighten the vise and the blade is now perfectly positioned for grinding. Set the miter gauge to 0 degrees. Place the miter gauge in the slot. Place the vise next the the miter gauge so that the gauge keeps the vise and the blade parallel to the belt. Turn on the Shopsmith and place the blade in contact with the belt. Use the miter gauge to slide the vise and blade from side to side to even out the use of the belt. Sparks will fly. Make sure that the sparks are evenly distributed across the entire length of the blade. If not, there is an alignment problem that must be addressed. If the sparks are even across the blade, you're in business. Periodically inspect the blade to see what's happening and stop when you're satisfied with the result.
It should be noted that I used ceramic belts for this procedure. I'm assuming that standard aluminum oxide belts will also work, but I don't know for sure.
I should also state that this procedure had the kinks worked out of it with just one of the blades and, as a result, that blade is now noticeably shorter than the other two. That's OK by me as I was expecting to spend some time aligning the blades in the head anyway. I should also note that I did not grind a secondary angle on the blades. Even though my blades did not have this angle, I would have given it a try but I would have had to grind off even more of my vise and I wasn't interested in doing that.
Anyway, I can finally reassemble, align, and test my jointer. Go Bears!
Aligned the sharpened jointer knives today. Used the procedure outlined by Bill Mayo in a post awhile back. Worked great! Thanks, once again, Bill. Had some time to take a couple of pictures showing the knife sharpening method I described yesterday.
Using miter gauge slot to align knife in vise.
Shot of knife in vise. Note the ground away portion of the vise. Can't tell it's a Palmgren anymore.
Using miter gauge to align vise with sanding belt.
Using miter gauge slot to align knife in vise.
Shot of knife in vise. Note the ground away portion of the vise. Can't tell it's a Palmgren anymore.
Using miter gauge to align vise with sanding belt.