Big Horn bandsaw crank on 14" Jet

[Joe Wood]

Well I was pretty excited to order this, but there's a big problem.

The Jet has a square (metric) nut for the crank shaft, so it's held inside the square housing, but the BHorn I got has a standard hex nut which is just spinning inside the square housing.

I called BHorn and he's checking into it, but I need to do some bandsaw work today. Unfortunately I already threw away the Jet crank and nut ..

Would anyone happen to know what thread that BHorn nut is? Hoping to find a square nut locally. I just called BHorn again and he didn't know what the thread was.

Some other fix? I was thinking about tapping in a little wood shim from underneath but don't know if that hex nut travels up and down with the spring.

[Bill White]

"I just called BHorn again and he didn't know what the thread was."
Huh? Isn't Bhorn the supplier? Shouldn't they be able to answer your question?
Sounds pretty lame to me.
Bill

[Dan Schocke]

If you can figure out the thread (using a thread gauge or just taking the hex nut to a hardware store and using trial and error), it should be pretty simple to fabricate a square nut of the right size with a piece of steel bar stock, the appropriate sized drill bit, and the right tap. (OK, throw in a hacksaw and a file too.) I'm not an machinist by any stretch, but I've used this approach to fabricate quite a few pieces of custom hardware when I couldn't find anything else that would work in the application. It almost makes me feel like I know what I'm doing sometimes.

On a side note, I think I need you to help me clean out my shop... I would have kept the old crank and nut long enough that I would have forgotten what it was for before I ever threw it away. I admire people that are able to determine what they need to keep and what they can live without so quickly :).

[Joe Wood]

Yeah very lame, they should know the specs for their own products. They should've known their crank didn't work on Jets, and said so or included the proper nut ..

Matter if fact the guy I talked to put one on his own 14" Jet, remembered having an issue with it but couldn't remember what it was or what he did to remedy.

I bet it's a standard thread, bet I can take it somewhere and find a square nut for it, lots of fastener places in the San Diego area. Don't want to drive all around looking though, and definitely don't want to start cutting and tapping metal :-)

never got around to the bandsaw work today anyway ..

[Joe Wood]

Sorry, the BHorn's nut is also square and not a hex, it's 5/8" across while the Jet's looks like a 3/4". Shouldn't be hard to find.