Allthread Stretchers to Fix Caster Problem
Posted: Fri Dec 17, 2021 6:06 pm
My Shopsmith is parked in the garage and I wheel it onto the driveway to use it.
Garage has a concrete floor which in 1927 was smooth but is now full of potholes which I must drag the Shopsmith over. I have the newer, larger polyurethane casters. Occasionally during this rollout process one or the other of the caster camshafts pops out of its bearing due to over-flexure of the sheet metal legs. This has always been a pain because I can't manually bend the leg enough to pop the shaft back in, so I have to turn the Shopsmith over and take one of the casters off, which is about 1/2 hour of unscheduled and unpleasant wrench work.
Each camshaft has a retaining screw tapped into one end, but they are not the problem. They used to back out but I Locktited them and still had the popout problem. Too much flex in the legs seems to be the problem.
To reduce leg flexure, I will try the allthread stretchers shown in the attached PDF. Mounted as shown through an existing hole pair in each leg. The expectation is that these stretchers will reduce the flexure enough to prevent the popout.
Two pairs of existing holes are available in the legs. Would rather mount the allthread through the holes closest to the casters but can't because the allthread would interfere with the foot treadle. Too lazy to drill new holes.
Will this work? Anyone else had this pop-out problem also?
Garage has a concrete floor which in 1927 was smooth but is now full of potholes which I must drag the Shopsmith over. I have the newer, larger polyurethane casters. Occasionally during this rollout process one or the other of the caster camshafts pops out of its bearing due to over-flexure of the sheet metal legs. This has always been a pain because I can't manually bend the leg enough to pop the shaft back in, so I have to turn the Shopsmith over and take one of the casters off, which is about 1/2 hour of unscheduled and unpleasant wrench work.
Each camshaft has a retaining screw tapped into one end, but they are not the problem. They used to back out but I Locktited them and still had the popout problem. Too much flex in the legs seems to be the problem.
To reduce leg flexure, I will try the allthread stretchers shown in the attached PDF. Mounted as shown through an existing hole pair in each leg. The expectation is that these stretchers will reduce the flexure enough to prevent the popout.
Two pairs of existing holes are available in the legs. Would rather mount the allthread through the holes closest to the casters but can't because the allthread would interfere with the foot treadle. Too lazy to drill new holes.
Will this work? Anyone else had this pop-out problem also?