Eric Meier
10-09-2009, 2:39 PM
Here's the deal: I've got a Rikon 14" bandsaw. Several months ago, I had a blade break while resawing a log. It wasn't that big of a deal, except that somehow the blade tension indicator broke.
The part that broke was a tiny screw (or some other metal pin???) that links the indicator arm to the up-and-down spring component. The arm now just swings freely. Just by looking at it, seeing the part that's still embedded in the saw, it looks like it was a tension/spring pin that was sheared off. (See attached pic)
I can still see how much tension is on the blade by manually lifting the arm and aligning the slot in the arm with the hole in the tension piece, and seeing where it *would* be if the two were still linked.
I looked in the owner's manual and all it listed was a part called "special screw" (yeah, real helpful) and apparently there isn't a replacement part available since there is no reorder # for this part.
I guess what I'm trying to ask is this: can anyone that owns this saw look and see what the piece looks like that links the tension indicator arm (should be yellow) with the up-and-down mechanism that actually changes the tension on the blade? Is it a spring pin, or some other part?
I can see what appears to be the remains of a spring pin still stuck in the saw, and I've been thinking about drilling it out, and replacing it with something else---maybe a screw or another spring pin. I'm just wanting to know what the actual OEM part looks like so I can get closest to how the saw was originally.
The part that broke was a tiny screw (or some other metal pin???) that links the indicator arm to the up-and-down spring component. The arm now just swings freely. Just by looking at it, seeing the part that's still embedded in the saw, it looks like it was a tension/spring pin that was sheared off. (See attached pic)
I can still see how much tension is on the blade by manually lifting the arm and aligning the slot in the arm with the hole in the tension piece, and seeing where it *would* be if the two were still linked.
I looked in the owner's manual and all it listed was a part called "special screw" (yeah, real helpful) and apparently there isn't a replacement part available since there is no reorder # for this part.
I guess what I'm trying to ask is this: can anyone that owns this saw look and see what the piece looks like that links the tension indicator arm (should be yellow) with the up-and-down mechanism that actually changes the tension on the blade? Is it a spring pin, or some other part?
I can see what appears to be the remains of a spring pin still stuck in the saw, and I've been thinking about drilling it out, and replacing it with something else---maybe a screw or another spring pin. I'm just wanting to know what the actual OEM part looks like so I can get closest to how the saw was originally.