Fettling an Axminster TS-200 Tablesaw

[jimi43]

Tom...is this how it moves?

Jim

 

[wizer]

erm yeh

It's so hard to relate to in 2d pics. I'll check it over tomorrow and confirm

 

[studders]

From the parts diag it definitely looks as if it should be a straight support bar that pivots.

 

[wizer]

From the parts diag it definitely looks as if it should be a straight support bar that pivots.

hehe thanks Studders :wink:

 

[Hobbyshop]

Judging by the exploded diagram you linked to it would appear that the strap is a tie rod that acts to keep the riving knife vertical as the blade is raised. It looks like the arbor assembly is raised by rotating about a pivot point and so the blade and arbor actually move in an arc. Not noticable on a circular blade but maybe moreso on the riving knife.
It looks to me that this tie bar will act to pivot the riving knife as it raises, so keeping it vertical.

Hate to say it Tom, but I took a look at your pictures on page 3 of this thread and it looks to me like it was straight when you started.

I also notice in the diagrams that there are bolts at each end of the bar. (There would need to be if it works as I think).

The way it is bent at the moment I can pretty much guarantee that there is no bolt at the far end any more (the end we can't see in your pictures), which is possibly how it got bent in the first place. ........... Maybe.

Guessing a bit as I have never actually taken one of these apart and I am just working from the diagram.

EDIT - just had another thought. If the bolt on the far end is still there then it could have been bent by attempting to raise the blade through the table top but restricting the movement of the riving knife.
How did you have it supported when upside down? Is it possible the supports were in the position the riving knife raises through, so although the blade could raise, the riving knife couldn''t?

 

[wizer]

Thanks Kevin. It looks like you're right, I've just looked at the master images and that bar doesn't appear to be bent when I took the initial pics. Or, at least, not bent as much as it is now. However, I still can't work out how it's got bent as I've not put the sort of effort I assume would be needed to bend a piece of metal. The rise and fall was a little stiff, but no so much that it was a struggle to turn the wheels. That bar must be made of cheese!

I think you assessment of what it's for is bang on. That came into my mind earlier, but I wasn't sure how to articulate it. I think the bar is still fixed at both ends. The saw is upside down on the supplied base, so the saw mechanism can easily pass though the space in the middle. The riving knife has been off most of the time, but it's always been free to pass through. As I say, I never got the feeling from cranking the hand wheel that there was something restricting it. The movement was always continual, just stiff. IIRC it was just as stiff in both directions.

Again, I'll have to have a look tomorrow and see what's what.

Thanks for you help.

 

[Hobbyshop]

I just noticed too, that when you removed the dust collector that one of the studs securing the riving knife support plate is now missing. It appears to be a stud conected to the dust collector itself.

I don't know if it has any effect on the movement of the support plate, but if you are not going to replace the dust collector I think I would definitely reolace the stud with a suitable bolt.

It has to be worth taking the support plate off and getting some lubrication behind it too.

 

[WellsWood]

I've just had a run through this thread from the start, and a good peruse of the exploded diagram in the manual, and I'm confident I now know how this all happened. Explaining the mechanics of it properly is too much for this time of night, but the essence is that I think it all stems from cutting the top off the riving knife. I'm assuming the reason you did that was to be able to lower the blade completely into the table, and therein is the problem - I strongly suspect it was never designed to do that, and that the bending of the bar occurred when you ran out of available movement (but kept winding anyway).

I also suspect this is why you needed to cut that corner off the plate which poked out the side of the case - by any chance was the trunnion wound all the way down (here's the crucial bit: without the crown guard and riving knife on) as well as tilted all the way over?

I'm glueing up the side panels for the desk tomorrow, but can only do one at a time for lack of clamps. As soon as I get the next one clamped up tomorrow morning I'll pop over and we'll set it to rights. About 11ish if that's agreeable?

 

[studders]

the bending of the bar occurred when you ran out of available movement (but kept winding anyway).

I'd say you were right but I agree with Tom that it must be pretty bloody flimsy to bend like that, unless he had three Shredded Wheat for breakfast?

 

[OPJ]

I'm glueing up the side panels for the desk tomorrow, but can only do one at a time for lack of clamps.

What?! Where are the WIP photos???

I've tried to follow this thread as best as I can and, I feel inclined to agree with Mark's previous post (well, everything before the paragraph I've quoted ).

 

[WellsWood]

I'm glueing up the side panels for the desk tomorrow, but can only do one at a time for lack of clamps.

What?! Where are the WIP photos???

Patience my boy, patience :wink:

Like the table BTW Olly -very nice work indeed. =D>

 

[TheTiddles]

the last 4 pages of this thread are frustrating... I wanted to know about the rip-fence upgrade! Does it flit the current TS200 rails? If it does I'm ordering one right now

Aidan

 

[wizer]

So Mark woke me up at 11am this morning :shock: and popped around to give me a hand. All his predictions were basically correct, so we set about removing that bar and we also decided that the blade cowl played an important part in the mechanism. So like Bean did years ago with his Kity, we ground off the side so it just left the backing plate, allowing dust to just fall straight down. To get the bent bar out, the motor mounting bolts had to be slackened so that the belt would come off:

Here's the hacked blade cowl:

Not pretty but all sharp corners where filed... and here's the bar returned to flat.

Mark did this and it took him all of 30 seconds :roll:

Then we put it all back in

and here's a shot of the underside where you can see the straight bar back in place:

So big thanks to Mark for levering me out of a hole once again. It's now working well. The problem with this machine is that the stops at full height and fully lowered are very spongy. I'd prefer them to be positive, so when it stops, it stops. As it is, I'll just have to remember that when it starts to get spongy is the time to stop.

Next job will be to fit the AM fence. Then the ZCI. Tonight I'm going to try to draw up the hopper and the cabinet that I want to install it into.

Thanks everyone for chipping in with this, I really appreciate it. Hopefully some of this will help other people with this saw.

 

[9fingers]

Tom,

Looks like you are making some good progress.
To make your height stops more positive you need a couple of stops on the thread itself.
You may not have any nuts to suit the thread of the adjustment screw(may even be a left hand thread) but find a couple of largish hex nuts and drill them out to be just a touch bigger than the outside diameter of the screw and then drill and tap for a convenient small screw through one of the flats on the nut and out through the otherside. Then fit two screws in each and slide over the main screw thread. Decide where you want the adjustment limits to be and then tighten up the small screws to grip the main thread.

If you don't have anything suitable to hand, measure the main thread and I'll make you something and pop it in the post for you.

Bob

 

[wizer]

Thanks Bob, will have a look. I'm not sure I want to touch it now :lol: It does need some dry lube, so when I flip it over again I'll see if I can work out if stop nuts could be added. From memory, I think adding a pair of stop nuts would take away from an already limited cut depth. Similarly, when the blade is lowered, it now doesn't go below the table, so when I make a board go over the top (to use as another work surface), I'll need to make a rebate for the blade.

 

[wizer]

the last 4 pages of this thread are frustrating... I wanted to know about the rip-fence upgrade! Does it flit the current TS200 rails? If it does I'm ordering one right now

Aidan

Sorry Aidan, missed this. No it's not a direct replacement. I'll be using Green's method of fixing some angle alu to the current rails. This is next on my list so keep watching. I'm making no excuses for my snails pace tho. It might be months before I get it done!

 

[wizer]

Rob and/or Ed can you please expand on you hopper design. I'm having problems visualising how it fixes to the frame? In Rob's pic:

it looks like there is a piece of 25mm ply fixed to the bottom of the frame. One assumes there is a square hole cut in this for the 'hopper' to pass through? What\How then does the hopper fix to the 25mm ply? Also, is there some trickery pokery to working out the angles of the hopper?

To make things more complicated, I'm seriously considering building in an integral 'drop box' of Garnham design. :-s

 

[woodbloke]

Rob and/or Ed can you please expand on you hopper design. I'm having problems visualising how it fixes to the frame? In Rob's pic:

it looks like there is a piece of 25mm ply fixed to the bottom of the frame. One assumes there is a square hole cut in this for the 'hopper' to pass through? What\How then does the hopper fix to the 25mm ply? Also, is there some trickery pokery to working out the angles of the hopper?

To make things more complicated, I'm seriously considering building in an integral 'drop box' of Garnham design. :-s

Tom - without going outside in this freezing bloody cold and upending my saw, I can't remember exactly how I fixed the hopper to the bottom. However if you hang fire for a moment, I'll be getting my O's very shortly from Axminster, so that hole you can see in the underside will have to be enlarged. I'll have another look tomorrow night as I'll have to turn the saw upside down to do the hole...will take some 'up close and personal' pics at the same time.
As to the trickery pokery involved in the hopper, it's all done by guesstimations, just fitting the four bits together a little at a time. It's useful to make a full size mock up using cardboard to get the correct sizes of the pieces.
The removal of the internal cowling is exactly what I did, so mine looks the same as your saw on the inside - Rob

 

[wizer]

I can't remember exactly how I fixed the hopper to the bottom.

:lol:

Thanks Rob, I'll wait with baited breath... and go off to research drop boxes...

 

[Mr Ed]

My stand had a solid top, so I cut a square hole in the top and then fixed the hopper to the underside of that. I made some timber fillets to block the hole between the saw and the stand and sealed it with duct tape.

Ed