You can always do the rare earth magnet trick, where you imbed one in the bottom of the crankcase to trap shavings. Just be careful to secure it properly.
But yours looks terrific.
If the main failure mode is wear, I'd put a drain hole in and change the oil regularly with a good synthetic.
Yup I believe that would work fine if you had a sturdy enough support on the right had side. I've made myself a little angle iron table/support for the right hand side I use when I'm cutting pieces too short to clamp safely/effectively in the saw vice.If I understand the saw limitation correctly where the C frame is interfering with the log on the left hand side. What about a simple wood plank fixture where the log is on RHS. The log is clamped to an upright fence, then you can slice cut off whatever width you require.
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Looks like the main gear is brass. If so, it will be the one to wear and a magnet won't help.
Good news is that it's relatively easy to make a replacement.
If the main failure mode is wear, I'd put a drain hole in and change the oil regularly with a good synthetic.
I didn't even bother trying to figure out what people considered was the "right" oil for the gearbox. I put in 80w90 gear oil partly because I had it on hand and also because I felt it proved adequate in higher speed and higher torque applications over many years.What oil do you suggest? I asked this previously and it generated a big debate that never answered my question.
True enough. I'll have to check my King 7x12 Swivel; I don't think mine is brass. I know when I replaced the bearing on my buddy's 4x6 years ago his was brass, and was badly imbedded with cast dust and small steel particulate. When I ordered the new parts from King in Quebec (they were great to deal with), the parts guy told me the embedded stuff was from the casting and there were two ways it gets in there. One is from original casting process and the drilling process for the bearing itself. They other was as the bearing wears it tends to wobble and this causes casting shavings and fine stuff from the bearing race to make its way into the crankcase. The larger saws have two seals—one on the inside and one on the outside of the gearbox. But none of the ones I have seen ever had more than one seal (if that).Looks like the main gear is brass. If so, it will be the one to wear and a magnet won't help.
Good news is that it's relatively easy to make a replacement.
If the main failure mode is wear, I'd put a drain hole in and change the oil regularly with a good synthetic.
What oil do you suggest? I asked this previously and it generated a big debate that never answered my question.
Odds are the gear is bronze, or at least should be and don't discount bronze in the wear arena. It can wear better than a mating iron or steel gear. The thing to be aware of, if you have a copper based alloy in the transmission like this(this includes most dividing heads!) is that EP addatives used in lots of oils will have sulfur which will react and eat away at the the copper. I can't give a non sulfur recommendation offhand, but imo it would be worth a call to a lubrication dealer like Commercial Oil. No idea how rapid the damage is but you'd hate to find out from experience that was rather quick.
And with that information I'm going to guess that a synthetic gear oil is a better choice. I'll report back on my findings of using regular gear oil in 5-8 years when I will likely change the gearbox oil again. Unless I have catastrophic failure with the gears before that time!Odds are the gear is bronze, or at least should be and don't discount bronze in the wear arena. It can wear better than a mating iron or steel gear. The thing to be aware of, if you have a copper based alloy in the transmission like this(this includes most dividing heads!) is that EP addatives used in lots of oils will have sulfur which will react and eat away at the the copper. I can't give a non sulfur recommendation offhand, but imo it would be worth a call to a lubrication dealer like Commercial Oil. No idea how rapid the damage is but you'd hate to find out from experience that was rather quick.
And with that information I'm going to guess that a synthetic gear oil is a better choice. I'll report back on my findings of using regular gear oil in 5-8 years when I will likely change the gearbox oil again. Unless I have catastrophic failure with the gears before that time!
And this was the debate that occurred.
Me me I'm going to for the sake of science and for the love of my fellow metal working hobbyists!.but who wants to find out the hard way?