 Lorr using serious equipment to prepare the parts for welding  Parts beveled and drilled  Pin in shaft, worm gear ready to go onto pin  Welding the result  Chucked for final cleanup |
This seems to be my month for equipment repair. Earlier this month I repaired the head on a reciprocating saw but the much needed repair of my table saw has been hanging around a lot longer. I broke the shaft off the worm gear that adjusts the angle of the blade and it was totally my fault. I should have cleaned the gears of the years of accumulated saw dust before trying to do any adjusting. Oops. Nothing is quite such a wake-up call as failed maintenance. I popped the worm gear right off the end of the shaft.
After a significant amount of time spent searching the internet for repair parts, I finally accepted they were not available and repair was my only option. I had the parts welded locally but when the weld was cleaned up so the part would fit where intended the parts separated again. Time to drag out the BIG guns.
Our son is an ingenious fellow and brilliant at what he does. He chucked the parts in a lathe, cleaned the ends and center bored a hole to accept a metal stabilizing pin.
Once the parts were all cleaned and ready for the pin he welded the parts together and, rechucked it in the lathe to clean up the weld.
This is the definition of perfection in repair.