How do you reline the arbor on a highland park slab saw Set the clock to the vise?

Answer 1

You realign the saw in this manner. First, check present alignment. Do this by clamping a sharp pencil in the vise. Bring it just up to the blade with the crossfeed then slowly run it across the entire width of the blade. The pencil point should remain in approximately the same position on the blade ( assuming the blade is flat this should be verified with a straight edge prior to this test ) . If the pencil moves away from the initial point leaving a gap OR if it pushes into the blade the carriage is not in 90 degree alignment with the plane of the blade. You could also use a machine tool gauge of some sort to measure this alignment more precisely. It would be clamped in the carriage also and then the feeler applied to the front portion of the blade just off the wider edge.After you zero the measuring device you would run it along the blade as the pencil. I do not know what would be an acceptable deviation from true....my guess is .020" would be fine plus or minus. It could be that considerably greater deviation would be OK. Doing this check assumes that your carriage is clean and tight without undue play itself. I'd check the rails for tightness and make sure the bearings are tightly holding the carriage in place on the rails. After this test you will know if the blade is seriously out of alignment. If it is remove the arbor cover ( some later HPs had arbor outside the box with no cover ). You will see a nut welded in place alongside each bearing....I don't recall how many of these there are. Threading into the nut is a bolt which contacts the body of the arbor bearing. You unloosen the bearings somewhat but not totally just so that they will move very slightly when the appropriate bolt is turned ( this depends what direction you need to move the blade to make up the out of true condition ( distance from true line ). You'll have to conduct the original alignment test as you do the adjustment. When it's improved to your satisfaction ( perfect is almost certainly not required or even possible ) you tighten the arbor bolts. I imagine these had a torque spec but who what that was is not known. You want it tight but don't want any broken bolt heads etc. After final tightening recheck the blade/carraige alignment a last time. If OK reinstall the arbor cover and give it a try. You should take note that most of the slab saws manufactured new today do not have any kind of method for precise adjustment that these simple but expedient welded nuts/bolts have on the HPs. Typical WW2 style simple but effective engineering. Can't beat it. How a person aligns a new slab saw today is a good question. Perhaps they make the arbor mounting holes larger so they can fiddle around with the arbor placement perhaps tapping it this way or that to get it trued. Or, perhaps, they rely on holding dimensions of the arbor mounting holes so that when installed the arbor will be true. I don't think that's even possible given the apparent tolerances of the whole machines. good luck and take your time these HP saws are better in many ways than any slab saw produced today and deserve to be preserved for future generations to use.