evsisson
April 12th, 2007, 07:28 PM
I just acquired an old 6 3/4" Porter Cable saw, Model 146-B, that needs some cleaning up. It seems the grease and general lube is pretty dry and sticky, and I want to dismantle the blade guard and thoroughly clean it so it will move freely.
My immediate problem is how to remove the guard. I don't want to break anything, and, because of the gearbox drive, I think breaking could happen without much effort. There's what looks like a thin large diameter nut on the drive spindle that has only two flats, and I'm guessing that's what's holding the guard on.
Rather than stick a screwdriver into the motor fan to keep it from turning while I loosen the nut, I'm hoping there's some kind of spindle lock I can't locate. All I can think of is that I should stick a pin through the grease fitting, but that could do a lot of damage to the gearbox if it isn't the right solution.
The only other thing that comes to mind is to thread a bolt into the end of the spindle until it bottoms out, and then apply torque to both that bolt and the two-faced nut in opposing directions (presuming the nut has left handed thread). I haven't dared to try this, because I don't want to over-stress the threads.
If I'm way off in my thinking, I'd really appreciate some ideas. And if you could warn me of any other challenges I might run into, and suggest any other important maintenance I should take care of, that would be great, too.
Ed
My immediate problem is how to remove the guard. I don't want to break anything, and, because of the gearbox drive, I think breaking could happen without much effort. There's what looks like a thin large diameter nut on the drive spindle that has only two flats, and I'm guessing that's what's holding the guard on.
Rather than stick a screwdriver into the motor fan to keep it from turning while I loosen the nut, I'm hoping there's some kind of spindle lock I can't locate. All I can think of is that I should stick a pin through the grease fitting, but that could do a lot of damage to the gearbox if it isn't the right solution.
The only other thing that comes to mind is to thread a bolt into the end of the spindle until it bottoms out, and then apply torque to both that bolt and the two-faced nut in opposing directions (presuming the nut has left handed thread). I haven't dared to try this, because I don't want to over-stress the threads.
If I'm way off in my thinking, I'd really appreciate some ideas. And if you could warn me of any other challenges I might run into, and suggest any other important maintenance I should take care of, that would be great, too.
Ed