Any Suggestions ?

[Touchwood]

Hi Gang.

My spindle sander (an old Wilton) finally died...totally seized up. After disassembling and seeing the sad state inside, I decided to scrap it. Bought a new one from Amazon and it arrived today...this one
http://www.amazon.com/WEN-6510-Osci...&redirect=true&ref_=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00

I like it because it has a cast iron table and good dust collection..and still light enough to move around the shop easily. One big problem,,the throat plates are thinner than the recess they go into on the table. That leaves a step..probably a a couple of mm...big enough to catch a small work piece sliding across it. I called Wen customer support but not much help. Looking for a fix. I could make large plates of thin material to cover the whole table with holes drilled out for the different drum sizes...but seems sort of klutzy.

Any thoughts??

Don

 

[Mike Davis]

Either add tape to the bottom of the insert or make a new insert of plastic, brass, aluminum, or wood.

 

[jazzflute]

As Mike suggests; some sort of shim material, maybe attached with two-sided tape on the surface the inserts seat upon should do the trick.

K

 

[CrealBilly]

Seems hokie to have to shim and even worse that mfg was no help. I'm with @Mike Davis one this one - make new zero clearance (or close to zero clearance) inserts that actually are the correct thickness. Then make some more and sell them on fleebay or amazon to all those wwers that can't make their own

"The official definition of "hokie" is "a loyal Virginia Tech Fan". The HokieBird. The bird is a "HokieBird" which has evolved from a turkey. Virginia Tech teams were once called the "gobblers"!"

 

[Jeff]

+1 to the tape shims (1 mm = 1/32"). Is that difference a big deal for your spindle sanding needs?

big enough to catch a small work piece sliding across it.

So how small are your small work pieces and if they catch is it really an eyesore or largely unnoticeable other than you noticed the "catch"?

Sorry, I'm a Devil's advocate over losing sleep about +/- inconsequential stuff.

 

[dupont6480]

+1 for tape. . .

 

[jazzflute]

Aaaaand... That's a 'bot.

K

 

[scsmith42]

Don, if the throat plates are plastic take a sharp punch, heat the end, and press it into the plastic all around the bottom side of the plates. It should create a small divot with plastic protruding up a few thousands around the edges of the divot. You can lightly sand the divots if needed to obtain the perfect height.

If the throat plates are steel, use a sharp punch to punch a divot into them. Same concept as the plastic but w/o the heat.

This is an old machinists trick to take up some clearance.

 

[Touchwood]

Don, if the throat plates are plastic take a sharp punch, heat the end, and press it into the plastic all around the bottom side of the plates. It should create a small divot with plastic protruding up a few thousands around the edges of the divot. You can lightly sand the divots if needed to obtain the perfect height.

If the throat plates are steel, use a sharp punch to punch a divot into them. Same concept as the plastic but w/o the heat.

This is an old machinists trick to take up some clearance.

Scott...thanks for the suggestion. The "old machinists trick" totally works. The plates are plastic and the punch raised a divot good enough to level them with the table even without heat:eusa_clap
A bit of sanding fine tunes them
Thanks again

Don

 

[jazzflute]

Luckily we have a resident "old machinist". I've always suspected that he was tricky...

K