A couple of week ago after Jason and I returned from collecting thunder eggs Jason asked if he could cut a few of his eggs before he left for home. After each egg that he cut Jason would stop and show me what was inside. That day the cuts were very rough and with each egg the cuts seemed to be getting worse. I knew Jason knew how to use the saw so this was really disturbing to see. I then cut one of my eggs and the cutting vibration was so bad that the egg shattered before I was done cutting.

I have been having some problems with the saw all spring. I even replaced the blade and could see that there was a quite large wobble even with the new blade. Over the past couple of months this wobble caused the blade to warp. On that day that we were cutting the thunder eggs the blade reached the end of its cutting life. I took the saw apart and could see that the shaft that the blade attached to seamed to be wobbling. The blade also wobbled like Jello as I shook it in my hand.

A few days later I had my fried, Bill Solt, take a look at the bearing and shaft assembly. He took the assembly apart and sure enough the shaft was bent. Using his metal lathe and some gauges he was able to determine exactly where the bend was and straighten the shaft using a hammer. This process took a while to complete because after each hit with the hammer the shaft needed to be measured again to determine where and how hard to hit it next. After straightening the shaft Bill then cleaned up the treads and ends where the metal was bulging out from earlier repair attempts done before I purchased the saw.

After repairing the shaft the bearings needed to be replaced. One of the bearings was damaged while disassembling the saw which was no big deal since the bearings didn’t match in the first place. Bill suggested a few companies where I could purchase new bearings. Since it was late evening I would have to wait to until the next day.

The next day I purchase new bearings from McGuire Bearing Company in Boise Idaho for $16.00. (The costumer service was excellent and I also found that they sell pulleys and motors.) That evening I attempted to reassemble the saw but ran into more problems. I could not get the shaft and new bearings to go back together correctly. After I accidentally shoved one of the bearings deep into the housing that held them I knew I needed some expert help.

A week and a half later I gathered up all the saw parts and headed back to Bill’s for more help. On the way I also stopped and purchased a new diamond blade. Bill was able to get the bearing back out of the assembly undamaged. He then said the reason this happened was due to a design flaw in the housing. There was no lip or anything to hold the barring in place. To fix this issue he created an insert that would keep the bearings in place and parallel to each other. Afterwards we reassemble the saw and installed the new blade. We then powered up the saw and could see that everything was running smooth and most of all, the wobble was gone.

When I returned home I could not wait to test the saw. I chose a fairly large piece of petrified wood to do a test cut. The test was going very well with no vibrations. At the half way point of the cut I took off the pressure and left the rock sitting on the table. It stood perfectly still as the blade continued to rotate without any resistance. I continued to cut some more rocks without any problems.

Thank you for all your help, Bill.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, June 3rd, 2008 at 1:02 pm and is filed under General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.