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Tool Maintenance
Posted by Dave Bull on April 27, 2012 [Permalink]
Most recent blog updates coming out of our workshop have been over on the Woodblock Roundtable side of things - I'm part way through a marathon batch of 50 cases for the 'Arts of Japan' print set, and that is of course eating all the time.
But I ran into a small glitch in that work yesterday; I was dressing a stack of case 'tops' to size when my table saw developed a strange noise, and then a strange wobble in the blade. I made a cursory inspection by taking the access plate off and checking the blade mounting, but could see nothing out of the ordinary:
But even running it without a blade produced the same noise, so there was nothing for it but to remove the top and have a look at the guts. It's a pretty simple construction, nothing much to go wrong. The wooden bar running from the motor to the front panel is the clutch - pushing that down lifts the handle on the motor, engaging the drive pulley.
The power is transferred to the main arbor by this v-belt ...
And there's the source of the trouble - the pulley on the arbor is not steel, but wood. I guess when I built this saw around 25 years ago, I couldn't find a pulley of the size I wanted, so made one myself. And it has finally decided to develop a 'Shake, Rattle 'n Roll' ...
I got online to try and find a replacement, but couldn't turn anything up, and it looks like I might have to make another one ...
But although I couldn't continue with work on the cases yesterday, I certainly didn't waste my time. Look back up at the first photo again ... what do you see sitting on the table?
Here's a proper shot ...
You know what these are, don't you!
Added by: Gayle on April 27, 2012, 11:00 pm
Those look like handles for cutting tools.
Added by: Marc Kahn on April 27, 2012, 11:36 pm
A home-made wooden V-belt pulley? You are truly a renaissance man!
An interesting challenge, to build the jigs to manufacture such a thing on your router table!
Marc
Added by: Julio Rodriguez on April 28, 2012, 3:09 am
I have assorted pulleys laying around in my workshop, that looks like about a 2-3" or so ? what's the diameter of the arbor ?
Added by: Dave on April 28, 2012, 8:39 am
It's a 7cm outside diameter, which is around 3". The exact diameter isn't all that important, as it's just a plain-jane table saw, and the particular speed of the blade won't really matter.
But the arbor is where the problem will come - it's 20mm, (standard for table saws in Japan). That's a fraction over 3/4 inch, which means that a well-made 3/4 inch item won't fit onto it ...
Added by: George Jarvis on October 14, 2012, 2:27 pm
I suppose the Mokuhankan Tool Set is on hold until the orders for Ukio-e Heroes are covered.
Added by: Dave on October 14, 2012, 7:42 pm
No George, perhaps the other way around. The revenue now starting to come in from the Heroes project is going to make a whole lot of things possible - things that were just getting shunted aside because I had neither the time to do it myself, nor the money to hire somebody else to do it.
One of those problems will never be solved, but the other is now becoming possible ...
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