Need to clean/lubricate used PM2000 t/s - angle adjustment binding

[Scott Snyder]

Bought a PM2000 used and got it at a great price but the blade angle adjustment wheel is tough to spin. I knew this when I bought it, the price reflected his acknowledgement it needed a good cleaning. Took the table top off (saved the shims and positions of each) but can't figure out what to to lube and with what. I cleaned the pinion gear without much effect, is there something else I should be cleaning/lubing? Any other suggestions?
Thanks.

[Bill Dufour]

All the bearings where the shafts turn. use solvent of choice with a spray bottle or squirt bottle until it drips and washes out the wood gunk. I would suspect the worm and wormwheel teeth. Then the thrust washer on the worm shaft may be gunky or set too tight.
Bill D

[Charles Lent]

I agree with Bill, but would add that doing the same with the ways (the curved slides that the blade mechanism follows to tilt. Once cleaned out and with the solvent dried out, I use Johnsons Paste Wax, applied with an old toothbrush, as the lubricant for the gears and ways, and a Teflon based lubricant for the shaft pivot points. The wax develops a surface crust that sawdust doesn't readily stick to like it does to petroleum lubricants, but it stays there and does a great job of keeping these parts moving easily. I've been using the paste wax for lubricating similar areas of my shop tools for 50+ years with no problems at all. It also makes the cast iron tops rust resistant and the wood sliding easily over them. Do not use a car wax, because they frequently contain silicone. Once silicone gets on your wood finishes and stains will not stick to it, and it's invisible so you won't know this until you apply the stain or finish.

Charley

[Bill Dufour]

Candle wax and paint thinner in a jar for a few days makes an easy to apply paste wax.
Bill D

[Scott Snyder]

Thanks for all the great info. Solvent of choice to clean bearings - mineral spirits? Will spraying bearings remove the oil from them? Need to re-oil them? Hadn’t thought about lubricating the ways, thanks for that. Lots to do in the next few days.
Scott

[Tom Bender]

The hand cranked bearings and the motor driven bearings are different animals and require different care and feeding. Don't wash the lube out of your high speed bearings accidentally.

[Scott Snyder]

Got it, thanks.

[Alex Zeller]

Not sure how different the PM2000 is to my PM66 but I tore mine all the way down when I refurbished it. The shafts for the handwheels are just a steel rod that rides on a cast steel housing. The trunnions are the same. They were partially bound up from sawdust that had mixed with grease. To get them apart and clean up everything I had to pull it all apart. I used wax on them so they wouldn't collect dust. My saw was neglected by the previous owner. It was a bit of work, not too bad, but the results were night and day. Before doing it tilting was almost impossible, now it's almost no effort.

By removing the parts i was also able to clean up the parts that lock the shafts from moving. It's a half round key that gets pushed out when the locking knob is tightened. I think they were the biggest problem. The knob is attached to a shaft that pushes the key out. The key had crud on it so it wouldn't go back in when the knob was loosened. In effect it was like trying to adjust the tilt without loosening the locking knob.

[Scott Snyder]

Alex - can you point me to a diagram or do you have pics? Cleaned everything obvious but not a night and day difference.
Thanks, Scott

[Alex Zeller]

It looks like the PM2000 uses the same half round key (Woodruff key #21) to keep the shafts from moving once set as the PM66. If you look at this picture of the raising shaft you can see a rectangle hole in the upper left.
PM2000-220.jpg
The Woodruff key fits into that hole with the flat side facing out.
part_p_438632_1650460068.gif
The end of the "knob" is tapered and when tightened the tapered point pushes on one side of the curve on the woodruff key forcing out of the rectagular hole.
part_p_438617_1032933977.gif

There's no spring to push the key back into the rectangular hole. On my PM66 I had to remove both shafts and use a small punch to get it out. Because it's curved tapping on one end of the flat side of the key caused it to rotate allowing me to grab the other end with pliers and pull it out. I used a wire wheel to clean all the junk that built up over the years and a pick to clean out the rectangular hole. Getting access to those shafts is the issue.

I did a table off cleaning up restoration (focused on using it, not making it look pretty). If you go over to Old Woodworking Machinery (.org) there's plenty of posts on rebuilding the older PM66s. I'm sure there's some differences but they do look pretty similar. IIRC to get the shafts out I had to remove a roll pin that holds the worm gear onto the shaft so it could slide out of the cast iron brackets that hold them. I'm not sure if it's possible to do without removing the table. If you do remove the table it's a great chance to see how it works and remove all the caked on sawdust and grease. I replaced my arbor bearings at the same time. I think you'll be very happy with the saw if you put the work into it now as it should be decades before it needs it again.

[Scott Snyder]

Well, I got the table off. Child’s play compared to what you’re describing. I’ll check out Old Woodworking Machinery. I think I’m getting in over my head...