Micro Progress today. My fault, I didn't go out there with a pre-prepared plan and ended up just pottering about. I flipped the saw over again because the rise and fall had become very stiff. I've still not bought any PTFE but did find some silicone spray which seems to have done the trick. It's only stiff on the last turn which is no bother really. However, now the tilt has become stiff and the silicone didn't seem to fix that. Will try the PTFE when I get it.
When looking at Bean's old thread where he upgraded the dust extraction on his K419, I noticed he also removed the blade cowl but he used a grinder to remove the bit that goes round the blade, leaving a cover for the pulley and belt. I'm not entirely sure if this is necessary? Comments? As it stands the belt and pully are exposed for dust to freely flow over them:
Should I try to cover this? I tried using a dremel to cut through the welds of the cowl but it wasn't that simple and I'll have to take my mini grinder to it if needed.
Something else which is odd to me. When you wind the blade down the pulley is pushed against a cranked metal bar:
It might be hard to work out what I'm talking about. But basically the belt then runs on the cranked metal bar. This seems like a bad idea to me? Won't it cause the belt to wear?
Finally I noticed that with the blade tilted fully, part of the motor mounting protrudes out the side of the case.
The manufactuerers bright idea was to make a side panel so that it could swing free into this space. Maybe I'm missing something, but surely it would have cost less for them to just trim it to fit inside the case? Anyway, that's what I did:
My mini grinder is setup with the abortech at the moment, so as I had the dremel out, I thought I'd do it with that. Big mistake. I went through at least ten 'heavy duty' discs! To top it off, I didn't remove enough! There's about 1mm sticking out the side now. The reason wanted to do this was so I could fit my own flat panel on there in order to fit it in a cabinet. So I'll either setup the mini grinder or more likely, rebate a section out of the panel to it will fit flush. :roll:
At least it's progress, of sorts. Next is to design the 'hopper'. That's another head scratcher for my pea sized brain. I think trial and error is the order of the day. As hard as I try, I just can't seem to draw it in SU.