Thanks Bee. Is that bees wax on the sled? I bought some Johnson’s Paste Wax yesterday. I haven’t put it in yet though.
1 Like
Yes - for the sled. It’s a natural alternative. You will be fine with Johnsons. However I think beeswax is a good thing to have in your kit. Bar soap is another quick fix if you are in a pinch.
Thank you
Thanks Bee! I will give that a try today. I am getting ready to start cutting. I have since moved my chain tensioners out on blocks, over the chain connection from behind the more gears to in line with the motor gears, so I can slide the cut board left and right per @dlang suggestion. While I was modding the chain tension position I went ahead and shored up the returns to the wall to make sure the frame is 100% rigid. It is rock solid. The only question I have about the frame now is whether there is something off on the angle. @mooslake mentioned the frame angle, but hopefully I am not off there as I don’t have time until this project I am working on is complete to modify the frame angle. Wax is drying as I type here. Fingers crossed that she’ll be cutting pretty today.
If you hold your sled by the chains, does the top (brackets) or the bottom (weight) tilt towards the cutting sheet?
@Gero I will check this when the wax is cured. Just to clarify, do you mean hold the whole sled up plumb, or just sort of manually slide it on the cut surface and look for tilting? It occasionally tilts/lifts up ever so slightly and turns according to chain tension out around the perimeter. Other than that when in cutting motion it is usually very stable on the surface.
Take it by the chains near the brackets and hang it in front of you. What tilt do you see?
I’m asking because the pattern looks familiar. On an unbalanced sled, friction at the top or bottom will cause random tilting. The wax will help reducing the friction and improve the result.
A further tuning is to balance the sled so that it hangs vertical.
If your top tilts towards the sheet, you are to high with your chains. Go lower in the holes.
If the weight tilts towards the sheet, your chains are to low, go higher.
2 Likes
Great tip @Gero. Thank you. I hung the sled by the chains and check it for plumb and it is dead on. I will definitely make that tip a part of my knowledge base though. Thanks for the input. The wax is dry and polished, so I am going to give her a spin. I will keep list the details of the trouble shooting steps I took once I get this problem licked. Thanks all.
1 Like
my current theory is that if the chains are slightly ‘too high’ (so that when
hung like this the sled would tilt so that the brick move away from the cutting
surface) that it would do slightly better when cutting off the sides of the work
area.
1 Like
Don’t know why, but a pointless poll seemed appropriate here.
- Bee’s wax
- Bar soap
- Dave Oil
- Moose Juice
- Gero Grease
0 voters
1 Like