shenion
Tool Pack Rat
- Messages
- 7,586
- Location
- Stone Mountain, GA USA
Picked up a Wilton horizontal band saw yesterday:
Was only $100. Nice heavy cast iron bed and saw. I soon found out why he was giving it away. It cut like crap. Turns out the blade was running backwards . Swapped the starter winding terminals in the motor and that was easily fixed. Also found one of the pivots had pulled out of the casting. There was a piece of sheet steel wrapped over it and bolted on. Worked, but was a hack.
So, grabbed some SS wire as per the forum recommendation. Welded the ear back together:
The SS wire worked well. I did have issues:
1. The SS wire wanted to go into spray transfer (was using 95/5 Ar/CO2 mix.) That meant I could only weld in short bursts as the weld pool would just pour out of the joint leaving a bigger crater than the V-joint I had ground in. Laying a 1/4" bead would melt about twice of the parent metal.
2. Drilling the hole again was a real pain. The SS got very hard no matter how slow I ran the drill. As the SS was at 10 and 3 o'clock positions, the drill wanted to move off center. The bit was chipped badly when done. So much for that titanium bit
I did not see or hear any cracking when the weld cooled. I did get near 100% penetration on the side shown in the picture as a V was ground before welding.
I was impressed on how well it worked. Should last as long as I don't raise the saw all the way up and let it slam into the stop; that caused the issue in the first place.
Saw now works well but needs a new blade. Just have to clean it up and replace the wiring.
I was wondering if the blade was just installed inside-out. It now runs with the blade running toward the back side of the vice as I would expect. I wonder if the blade is supposed to run the other way and the tension would try to keep the blade straighter.
Was only $100. Nice heavy cast iron bed and saw. I soon found out why he was giving it away. It cut like crap. Turns out the blade was running backwards . Swapped the starter winding terminals in the motor and that was easily fixed. Also found one of the pivots had pulled out of the casting. There was a piece of sheet steel wrapped over it and bolted on. Worked, but was a hack.
So, grabbed some SS wire as per the forum recommendation. Welded the ear back together:
The SS wire worked well. I did have issues:
1. The SS wire wanted to go into spray transfer (was using 95/5 Ar/CO2 mix.) That meant I could only weld in short bursts as the weld pool would just pour out of the joint leaving a bigger crater than the V-joint I had ground in. Laying a 1/4" bead would melt about twice of the parent metal.
2. Drilling the hole again was a real pain. The SS got very hard no matter how slow I ran the drill. As the SS was at 10 and 3 o'clock positions, the drill wanted to move off center. The bit was chipped badly when done. So much for that titanium bit
I did not see or hear any cracking when the weld cooled. I did get near 100% penetration on the side shown in the picture as a V was ground before welding.
I was impressed on how well it worked. Should last as long as I don't raise the saw all the way up and let it slam into the stop; that caused the issue in the first place.
Saw now works well but needs a new blade. Just have to clean it up and replace the wiring.
I was wondering if the blade was just installed inside-out. It now runs with the blade running toward the back side of the vice as I would expect. I wonder if the blade is supposed to run the other way and the tension would try to keep the blade straighter.