Shopsmith Forums

ERLover - I am extremely curious. Why do you think that heating the table will have any effect on the tables "flatness". Yes, it may change some while the table remains hot but will it not return to its' current state when cooled?

I didn't know that it would return to the previous state. Some of the fellas suggested "baking" it so I guess that's where the heat came from.

putttn wrote:I didn't know that it would return to the previous state. Some of the fellas suggested "baking" it so I guess that's where the heat came from.

I don't know that it will return to its' present state after being cooled. That was a question (and a statement of my doubt that heating the table is a solution ).

Prove me wrong if you can. That would be great. I will have learned something and more importantly you will have a fully functional band saw table.

When I get home later this afternoon i'll see if the shims have helped to get it flat.

My suggestion was more of how to heat it controlled, not that it would absolutely work.

Maybe a combination of the clamping pressure and the heat will persuade it that 1/16 that it is dished.

Puttn,
maybe God is looking upon you.
http://shopsmith.com/ss_forum/general-w ... 17770.html

putttn wrote:I got the table off and clamped to my MFT table. It was still dished when I took it off but didn't take much pressure to flatten. The one pic with the bolt not installed was before I got a new one and got it all cinched down. It did not make any difference in the dish of the table. I'll see how this works. Heat wise the best I can do is a hair dryer?

The slit clamp will not help the dish, but should even the height across that edge.

At this point I would clamp that tightly and leave it there while doing the other stuff. I do not think a hair dryer will accomplish much.

This may be the final try on this. Had some left over bars from my old Ford 8N mower that are fairly heavy and I've got some shims on each end and clamped till the dish is flat to the table. If this doesn't work I may have to resort to some heavy force like my Jeep!

I wonder if Shopsmith's lifetime warranty (which IIUC extends beyond the original purchaser) still covers cast-iron bandsaw tables?

I don't believe that heat will do much to "correct" cast iron, short of melting it back down. And as for bending it flat, I strongly suspect that it would break first. That table must have been milled "green", and then moved as it aged. That was a common mistake with early Asian machine castings. The Tiawanese eventually got pretty good at machined castings, just in time to be underpriced by their cousins on the mainland.