Where'd The Arbor Go?

[Ron Dudelston]

Anyone seen my Uni arbor?  After listening to my 1947 Unisaw arbor go chirp, chirp, I decided to tear it down and replace the arbor bearings.  Actually, it wasn't too hard to field dress it from the machine and the bearings came out pretty easily.  After I got it apart, it felt like I had a couple of square balls in the rear bearing.  When I was tearing it down, I could tell by the paint marks that this was the original set of bearings.  I sure hope I can get 69 years out of the next set.  The tear down also gave me an opportunity to clean the worm gears on the tilt and elevation.  Now we wait on the bearings.

 

 

[Courtland]

Nice Ron!!!!! Gettin down old school! I admire the mechanically inclined, if I tore this down I'd break something, and it would end up costing me more to fix it than the thing was worth. Been there done it, but I'm willing to keep trying, and breaking things.

I bet that baby will purr with those new bearings, I completely forgot you had this old timey machine as your main saw.

So you had to remove the table, do have a system down to realign the table to the blade? Nice job Ron.

Edited January 30, 2016 by Courtland

[Ron Dudelston]

I'm mechanically inclined and cheap John so its a perfection combination.  When I put the top back on, I'll rough the alignment in by installing a blade and tram the table in with a combination square using the right side miter slot and aligning to the blade.  You snug the four table bolts and then use a dial indicator on a surface gauge.  You run the surface gauge along the miter slot across the blade.  Then you tap the table until you're running true.  When I bought the saw, I had to remove the top to make the saw light enough to carry and when I re-installed the top I used that procedure.

[Courtland]

That's exactly how I realigned my Grizzly top Ron, after installing my Biesemeyer fence. If I remember I had to do it a couple times till I got it right. I was also able to align the table so there was a micro mis-alignment. By aligning my table so the space between the out feed side of the blade was just a micro smidge wider than the infeed side of the blade, this is a great way to adjust it so the risk of kickback is greatly reduced. Just food for thought.

[Ron Dudelston]

Not a bad idea John.  A couple of thousandths room at the back of the blade might be good insurance.

[Courtland]

Ya I wish I could say it was my idea, but it wasn't, I saw it or read it somewhere about 10 years ago and tried it and honestly, I do not remember having any kickbacks since then. I would have a kick back occasionally say, 1 or twice a year, but since I adjusted that smidge at the out feed side, I have not had a kick back since, and it effects nothing in the area of cutting and square.

[Ron Dudelston]

Well, my bearings came today and the Uni is back together, top indicated in and the fence aligned.  Man what a difference.  

[Courtland]

Glad it worked out Ron! How does she sound now too?

[Ron Dudelston]

The belts make more noise than the arbor.  

[Courtland]

10 hours ago, Ron Dudelston said:

The belts make more noise than the arbor.  

Time for new belts, or is it just the way it is at this point?

[stevem]

I did the bearings on my 70 year old 1160 tilty a year ago as well as new belts, noisiest thing now is the breeze from the blade

 

aligning the table with the blade was the most time consuming, on the tilty, its basically the same as a contractor saw except the trunnions tilt the table instead of the blade/motor assembly

[Courtland]

18 minutes ago, stevem said:

I did the bearings on my 70 year old 1160 tilty a year ago as well as new belts, noisiest thing now is the breeze from the blade

Steve, what belts did you go with, standard engine belts or the fancy ones with links?