Startrite 352 bandsaw - looking for ideas please.

[Lons]

I love my old 352 bandsaw with one niggle that's driving me nuts. The previous owner, dear friend that he was bless him was very careless to gouge the table quite badly, heaven knows what he did to his blades. :roll:
It sticks out like a sore thumb and though I've stripped it out today and temporarily filled the damage with steel weld stuff, ideally I want to alter it so I can fit removable inserts and there are only two ways I can see of doing that.

1). Cut out a square section maybe 40x 40mm of the shaped recessed part, glue or mechanically fix a support plate shaped to match the recess and make drop in inserts 40 x 40 x 5mm.

2). Cut out the whole of the shaped recess and mechanically fix a support plate, probably alloy to the 6 sided part under the table (support plate might need to be two part as the table splits), then make thick inserts the full shape. I could drill and tap the insert and support plate to take a countersunk machine screw to hold it down.

I can't work out why that recess is there in the first place. Any ideas other than those would be gratefully received and considered.
Tables are laid on the bench so not aligned before one of you points that out btw.

cheers
Bob

 

[Argus]

Can't really speculate on what happened there, other than the wear is consistent with the blade fouling the edges when the table is tipped and used on a steep angle.

My 352, circa 1990, has a different table to that. The top has a circular recess about 30 or 35 mm in diameter with a removable insert around the blade aperture that itself has a slot for the blade. This allows the work to be supported to within about 4mm either side of the blade. However, it must be removed when sawing at angles, because it is thick enough to foul the blade, leaving a gap about the size of a 50p, which explains the wear that you have.

Originally it was plastic, but that soon broke and I made an exact replica in wood that has survived the past 20 odd years.
Apart from the obvious annoyance that the edge is a bit ragged, I'm not sure that it detracts much in use unless you are sawing extremely small pieces or using steep angles.

There doesn't seem to be enough meat in the centre of that table to allow you to machine a top slot, so short of getting a new table with an insert slot already in place, I can't see an alternative to leaving it as it is.

Sorry............... but good luck

PS - I have a manual that came with mine as a PDF that shows the insert in the parts diagram, plus other information if it is of any use.

 

[Lons]

Thanks Argus

mine is the model prior to yours and having googled since I posted it seems most of them have damage like mine. It isn't affecting operation but I don't like it and would also like to make an insert with minimal clearance and maybe another for angle cutting.

My thoughts at the minute are to take out the whole section and fit a solid alloy support plate to the 6 sided recess then I can make shaped inserts to fit with a screw down into the alloy. I'd probably need to enlarge the recess in the right hand table to give a bit more meat on the insert that side of the blade.

Going to wait to see if anyone comes up with a better idea first though.

Thanks for the offer of the manual but I managed to get one on line, much appreciated anyway.

Bob