Caster Reassembly (A)

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This is the first of a series of posts showing A method of reassembling a SS Caster Set.

Who da Thunk??? The Hinge end and the clamp end casters use an identical set of parts! The only difference is the location of the Foot Pedal Crank on the Cam Shaft!

I refer to spring pins below. a.k.a. roll pins, tension pins.

I have referred to the two casters as 'hinge end' and 'clamp end'. This alludes to the right end and left end respectively of the Shopsmith from the normal operators position. Some folks prefer the crank be towards the back of the leg rather than near the front. In that case the casters are merely mounted on the 'opposite' end. No difference in assembly(just labeling[clamp/hinge]).

Very older versions have the cams secured to the cam shaft with tension pins and they may originally be blind holes. The positioning and orientation is the same as illustrated here, but the flat for the cams will not be present. I must mention that the holes for the cam pins and the hole for the crank are not drilled at a 90 degree rotational angle to each other. The angle between the crank hole and the cam holes is less than 90 degrees when viewed as in the pix below that shows the cam flat. I cannot say for sure if this version had the cam and rod holes drilled similar to the tie rod, so marking the cam and shaft mat avoid consternation at reassembly.

If ya already disassembled the casters and have not marked the tie rods/castings/(cams/camshaft) fear not - dry assemble them to determine which parts fit best together. Suitably sized nails(od) or drill bit shanks serve well here.

There is a newer version that has screws through the casting into the cam shaft. I have not(yet) needed to disassemble one of those so I do not know how that affects reassembly. I do know you do not want to cause that screw to become frozen(cross threaded etc.) or broken in the the shaft hole.

Notice the crank holes are drilled for either location on the cam shaft. Earlier versions had only one hole and even older ones located the crank closer to the end.

[ATTACH]5592[/ATTACH]

Before disassembling, mark each end of the tie rods and castings. I gently prick punch the ends of the rods and an area near the casting hole with from 0 to 3 dimples. The holes were drilled after the rods were inserted into the castings at the factory and most likely vary.

Actual Reassembly Begins with the next link.
http://www.shopsmith.net/forums/showthread.htm?p=44801#post44801

This thread is linked to from http://www.shopsmith.net/forums/showthread.htm?p=44799#post44799