Yesterday it was loosing the conveyor belt on my drum sander, and having to change it out with a spare, or 1/2 spare belt I had stashed.
I’ve always had tracking issues with this Jet 16/32 conveyor belt. The stock conveyor belt cannot be purchased anymore, and the only one I could find was a very thin belt that didn’t hold up well at all. I really need to find a source to have another higher quality belt made for it…
Today my little 14” bandsaw that I run my carbide tip blade on broke down on me. There is a bracket that the wheel shaft is mounted on that not only adjusts tension, but the blade tracking. With this being an off brand machine that has gotta be 30 years old, I cannot find a source for parts at all. Anyone ever heard of “HDC Quality Tools” ?
Well I was looking at random bandsaw parts on line and found a part for a Jet 14” that has unbelievably close specifications as the part I’m looking for. So close that I ordered the part to see if it will work. I may have to modify it a bit. But I took the old part up to a welder buddy of mine and he shook his head saying he didn’t know whether the cast aluminum could be welded or not. I was told the shops call it “pot metal” and it was always a mystery how they made it, and what was used in the molten mix. Sometimes it could be spot welded, and other time it couldn’t be welded at all….
Of course I had a riser with a G-10 I beam needing to be roughed out with my carbide tipped blade , and had to revert to my old technique with a lot more edge sander work to get this one piece riser ready to lay up.
Kinda strang to have two machines go down in two days…. Kirk