Well, Foot! (or caster)
Posted: Sat Jul 15, 2023 1:17 am
Somebody here on the forum advocated for always buying new SS items, pointing out that you're guaranteed that parts fit. I read that post shortly after buying a set of used casters off eBay for my PowerStation. Probably saved 80 bucks. Of course there were no instructions, nuts, bolts, nor spacers...but there's a big box store nearby. So I set to wallowing out 8 holes to 5/16ths, and I cobbled together a collection of washers and nuts to substitute for spacers. The gap's not the same from top hole to bottom, and I couldn't get the same combo to work on left as well as right of each caster assembly. But with a little patience and forty dropped washers/nuts rolling on the floor, I got one assembly mounted.
Almost had the second caster assembly bolted on when I realized the foot pedal star thingy was colliding with the PS leg. Closer inspection leads me to believe that the caster assemblies came from different machines, and maybe different time periods. The one that worked has its foot thingy 2" further inboard. It also has a matching roll-pin hole at the other end of the camshaft. Not to be deterred, I pounded the roll pin out of the offending star, and drilled a new hole inboard through that camshaft.
Then dyslexia set in. I got totally confused trying to match cam and star positions from one assembly to the other (how many times can a roll pin be re-used?). I disassembled the caster again and flipped the star thingy so that its rays peak out from under the PS sort of like the other side, but something still looks off. Like I'm spinning the foot pedal backwards with my toes. I think I've got 2 left feet! (er...star thingies)
I'm not terribly worried about it....they really help moving the PS around. I just should have paid closer attention to the picture before buying.
Now I'm trying to find time to assemble the 520 tables and carriage that I also found on eBay!
Almost had the second caster assembly bolted on when I realized the foot pedal star thingy was colliding with the PS leg. Closer inspection leads me to believe that the caster assemblies came from different machines, and maybe different time periods. The one that worked has its foot thingy 2" further inboard. It also has a matching roll-pin hole at the other end of the camshaft. Not to be deterred, I pounded the roll pin out of the offending star, and drilled a new hole inboard through that camshaft.
Then dyslexia set in. I got totally confused trying to match cam and star positions from one assembly to the other (how many times can a roll pin be re-used?). I disassembled the caster again and flipped the star thingy so that its rays peak out from under the PS sort of like the other side, but something still looks off. Like I'm spinning the foot pedal backwards with my toes. I think I've got 2 left feet! (er...star thingies)
I'm not terribly worried about it....they really help moving the PS around. I just should have paid closer attention to the picture before buying.
Now I'm trying to find time to assemble the 520 tables and carriage that I also found on eBay!