58F and "Fair" @ 17:30, with a good bit of sun. Calling for a low of 43 in the overnight so a little better than this morning.
Coffee tasting very good.
Had a fairly productive evening up in the shop last night. Stayed nice and toasty inside.
Car had frost on it when I left this morning. Think I went to bed around 08:00 ... lol.
Started working on cleaning out the slots for the miter gage.
Confirmed that the miter bar is the correct size, fits snugly in the slots ... whether that will remain the case after I get the tracks cleaned remains to be seen.
Also confirmed that the motor amperage is 7.8 amps and it was a 3 phase saw originally (on the plate in the picture below)
Probably a good chance that the 3 phase motor is the original.
Made it around to rear side of the saw. If there's one unfortunate thing about this unit, it's this little "modification":
Whoever did that little bit of butchery should be beat profusely with a large stick.
I did manage to remove the wood piece and a good amount of the silicone caulk ... hopefully with no further damage to the metalwork of the cabinet:
Today I'll take up the McKanica Silicone caulk remover and see if I can get the remainder of it off while I ponder how I'm going to repair the damage done to the cabinetry.
Got the backside of the cabinet mostly cleaned up aside from the silicone but it looks like I forgot to take a picture of it.
After working on the back, I took a break from the cabinet and started working on detailing the Biesenmeyer fence, using rubbing and polishing compounds and wet-sanding with 320/500 on the bare metal parts:
The sacrificial rail on the blade side of the fence really needs replaced (or at least an additional rail added to it) ... as it's had contact with the blade at some point. (The one on the non-blade side cleaned up nicely)
But examining the fence I was at a loss at how to go about doing that ... since there are no visible fasteners attaching it to the metal portion of the fence.
Fortunately, Google and YouTube revealed the answer: The fasteners are hidden under the Formica laminate ... so that has to be removed to access them.
Will probably go ahead and replace the black edging on the fence rails as it's pretty beat up and is fairly cheap.
Next up was tackling the right side of the cabinet, which has the hole to access the motor:
I suspected that stuff that had run down the side at the bottom might be contact cement (used to glue laminate) and it turned out that was the case. A combo of Goo Gone and the Wagner Heat Gun set on low allowed me to remove most of it:
At that point my fingers were cramping from all the rubbing and buffing so I knocked off and called it a day.
Today I need to dig up the owner and parts manuals for the saw online, get the edging ordered for the fence, and maybe make a decision on the VFD and see if I can find a cabinet for it at a reasonable price.
To size the VFD you take the motor amps and multiply by 1.73 so 7.8 amps x 1.73 = 13.494 amps output.
The VFD I was looking at is rated for a 4hp motor and has a 13 amp output ... and I'm tempted to go with it, based on Theobaud's successful experiences with running his Bridgeport mill with a slightly undersized VFD (next size down from the one I'm considering)
OTOH, if it fails due to being undersized then I doubt the mfg would honor any warranty claim.
Another $30 for the next larger size ...
I guess
in for penny, in for a pound ... ¯\_ (ツ)_/¯