need help with a SIP 16" scroll saw

[donwatson]

Hi All,
I have a SIP 16" scroll saw that has a problem.
With the blade down in the lower position I can place a piece of wood against the back of the blade as shown in the picture.
When I raise the blade to its upper position, it moves away from the wood about 2 mm (1.75mm actually).
Also the blade has some sideways movement, from the bottom position to the top position the blade moves about 1.5 mm (1.37mm actually)
Can I repair this using normal engineering methods or is this machine doomed for the scrap heap ??
The SIP Item No. 01928 and Serial No. 07/2012

Any help would be appreciated. Thanks Guys.

Don W

 

[Claymore]

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[NazNomad]

Are the blade holders bolted down with an allen key? Is there some room for adjustment if you loosen them?

Failing that, just wait until the motor burns out and buy a Delta instead. :-D

 

[donwatson]

Hi All,
I think I have a plan worked out.
I have stripped the mechanism to get at the blade holders at the end of the arms.
I replaced the Selloc/Spring Pins and replaced the mechanism.
Result : THE PROBLEM WAS WORSE.
A quick call to a friend of 50 years (He was foreman in the toolroom I worked in) and he came up and we had a cuppa and a long think.
Basically the machine is in 3 pieces,
1 The heavy cast base
2 The heavy cast Table
3 The 'C' type frame that houses the operating mechanism.
The cast base and the cast table are connected through the table tilt pin at the rear and 2 headed bolts that only allow the table to *** left and right so the table and base can be viewed as 1 item.
The 'c' type frame that houses the operating mechanism is attached to the base by 4 bolts at the rear of the machine, only accessible after removing the box that contains the electronics ?? Incidentally the cables in this machine are badly cut and in some places the outer sheath is cut through and showing the cables underneath.
I shall take some pics and hope they can help explain what is happening..
This pic shows the bottom arm, in the middle is the connection between the motor and the arm, far left is the bottom of the 'C' frame.

 

[AES]

Don, I had a machine which although badged Einhell (not their latest model BTW) looked very much the same as yours when stripped. I too had unwanted blade movements in unwanted directions (i.e. side to side and back to front, not just up and down) and in my case this was because the 2 arms were not square/planar to each other.

My Einhell had cast arms (looked just like yours in the pic) and the reason for all the odd movements was the arms had warped during/after the casting and/or cooling process. I tried (VERY) gently!!!) to straighten some of the warps out, but because I thought the material was some inferior quality "monkey metal" I didn't dare to go too far with that. I'd recommend you get your tool room mate to have a look, 'cos IF your arms are as warped as mine were then IMO if you try to straighten them properly they'll break.

Are spare arms available for your saw? If not then your only chance will be to straighten them as much as you dare (risking the possibility of breakage) and just live with the best of a bad job.

The saw will still function (but useless for fine fretwork say) and in fact after refurbishing mine it's still alive serving as a gift to a girlfriend of my wife's who doesn't really care about accuracy that much. It does still cut to an outline (more or less) - she was pleased with it anyway.

HTH

AES

 

[NazNomad]

I'd remove the rear 'c-type' frame and see what's going on with the bronze bushings that the top & bottom arms are mounted in.

 

[AES]

+1 for that comment by NazNomad.

In fact on my Einhell, I soon discovered it had warped arms from new, so those bushes hadn't had time to wear. But quite correct, they would do so (because they were forced to work at an angle instead of square).

I suppose you could re-bush them square to account for the warping, but would be quite a job - lots of epoxy for example.

Good luck.

AES

 

[donwatson]

Thanks for all the help guys.
The machine was binned today.
There are no replacements available so I have stopped wasting time with it.

take care
Don W

 

[AES]

Thanks for the update - it's sometime a bit dispiriting when someone asks for help, someone offers some possible solutions, then there's no feedback.

BTW, can you "unbin" the motor? Although only a cheap universal (brushed) type it was quite smooth and powerful in my old Einhell (mentioned previously above) and if that machine hadn't gone on to another life I would have saved the motor as a "should come in useful someday" item.

AES

 

[donwatson]

Sorry about that, never thought of saving the motor.

Don W

 

[AES]

OK Don, no problem.

It's not really necessary, unless you have a mind to make some tool for yourself someday that is (I have about 3 or 4 motors stashed away at present - and a couple of plans & ideas, etc) and one of these fine wet days I'll get around to doing something with 'em! =P~

AES