Hi JJ, general tips relate primarily to dust extraction - there is NONE in the original design! Most folks 'box in' the cabinet (motor tilting problem?) and install a sloping surface in the cabinet and below the motor, leading to an extraction outlet at the cabinet's bottom edge? There are various photos knocking around, try Mr Fish of this forum and see his drool-worthy installation. Alternatively......the dust deflector plate just behind the saw blade is a joke. I've presently got the 'lid' off my saw, trying to fashion a wrap-around cowl to replace it with, one that I hope to attach my 4" dust hosing to, so that I can more efficiently catch emphysema initiators. I hope to suspend a 90-degree fitting to the underside of the motor, so that the hose attachment point is directly below the motor and therefore eminently accessible.
There is one real dust trap/possible damage point underneath the saw. Go to the motor side, slightly forward of the motor, look backward toward the 'smile' cut-out in the cabinet. On the underside of of the main casting, do you see the 'worm' that drives the elevation quadrant? Get a relative or colleague to crank the elevation wheel back and forth; that worm wheel and cogs on the bottom of the casting are very, very exposed to sawdust and the worm can gum up with resin to an astonishing amount. Cleaning it involves extracting the worm from its housing. If you know your way round an AGS, and have quadruple jointed, 19" fingers, you MIGHT just do this without a complete strip-down....us ordinary arthritic mortals swear and strip down!
Just be careful about removing the rear bar. The big long fence becomes an excellent lever and an 8' plank of, say, 2" thickness could REALLY put a bending/shearing force on your front bar? Beismeyer realised this when he specified HD box section for his debatablely excellent fence? The cast bar on our AGS's could snap more easily than box section? Also, the AGS fence itself is just a pressed steel U shape with a bottom section spotwelded (or similar) into the open 'U'? I feel that its too flimsy to stand up to the forces we could exert on it if only secured one end?
Good luck. They are great wee saws (400 pounds weight, 'Yeah right'; they're "wee" ](*,) ) and stable. I've totally stripped mine down, de-rusted it, re-painted it [DON'T USE WICK'S HAMMERSHITE....go on, ask me how I know this...
] replaced the arbour bearings, put a new 3hp motor in it (and a 16amp plug) and am now - after
two years*, am re-assembling it and refining it as I go. Have you seen the price of replacing the fine adjustment cogs inside the fence housing? :shock: :shock: :shock:
Sam
*
Depression eats your initiative.
