KT_NorCal
Established Member
Hi Kevin,
Just noticed you've been updating here. My AGS10 (1977). has the bronze bush in the rise & fall casting but the bore through the main casting is 20mm, no steel bush.
Hi Miles!
Hope all is well with you. Yes, I'll do some summary progress updates on the other sites as I get to certain points, but I figured there were way more people here that had direct experience with these WB saws and spindle moulders... and I'll definitely need some advice along the way. The WBs are pretty rare birds over here.
I'll get a better picture of mine, but it is definitely bushed on the main trunnion with some sort of a metal bushing. I am going to replace the bronze bushing on the other side as well as I don't like it being lose like that and I think there is too much slop between the bushing and the pin.
Have you had juddering/jumping problems because the rise and fall casting assembly doesn't fall under its own weight? I've had this from new with mine. I always attributed it to their hack design replacement of the gib strip system. Recently, I replaced the bronze bush and doing that showed up significant angular discrepancy between the slide surfaces of the two castings. At first, I thought that it was from post machining distortion of the castings but, having checked that, I now think it is a discrepancy between the pivot borings of the two castings. That's where I am, at the moment.
++++++1 Yes! Very same issue and it annoyed the **** out of me. After spraying copious quantiles of brake cleaner --to get the redwood dust and pitch out of the racks-- and then some PTFE in there, raising the blade was very smooth, but it would judder its way all the way down... I thought it was probably that "value engineering" gib plate as well. Although now that you mention it, I don't think slop in the pin helps the situation either.
Do you know if the old gib plate is retrofittable to these newer saws by any chance? I can't really find a good image of how the older system mounts to the trunnion so I'm not really sure if it is feasible. Barring that I'll have to think up some design.
The problem with the rise & fall assembly not falling under its own weight is definitely misalignment between the two castings. The rise and fall works fine on my 1960 BGS but the saw spindle isn't perpendicular to the sliding table movement axis. This is more likely to be distortion of the rise & fall casting in the other plane, I think. There is a gap between the castings at the pivot with the slide surfaces mated. Not that impressed with the workmanship/QC at Durham. I had to replace my AGS spindle bearings after 6 months because they had been so badly fitted.......
Another issue might be the variable levels of friction between the two trunnions at different points in their arc.... I'm going to coat the machined surfaces with a mil-spec dry moly lube when I'm done cleaning them up. I think that with a new gib design and making sure there is no slop in the pin should go a long way to making the design work as intended. I did put the smaller trunnion on a surface plate and it seemed to be close to dead flat so at least it isn't twisted on this saw. Haven't checked the main trunnion yet.
KT
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