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Post by oregon on Oct 8, 2015 0:21:20 GMT -5
Yeah, those treadmill motors are pretty useful. I haven't found an inexpensive way to control the speed if the electronics are shot, but worth keeping an eye out for free treadmills..
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Post by oregon on Oct 7, 2015 0:19:04 GMT -5
jakesrocks, notice the person's handle is Oregon, likely lives here. The sun will soon, we all hope, get blocked out by clouds for about the next 6 months so it can drizzle for days at a time. I wash cuts in warm water w/Dawn, and scrub them with a brush. Rarely have any residue. Anything porous, I wrap in a rag to get the seepage. You mean our >80-85 deg weather isn't going to continue ?! Would be nice to see some snow in the mtns this year though... Yeah, Dawn is usually quite effective on other oil/grease projects, must be seepage from the various fractures... I'll get there.
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Post by oregon on Oct 6, 2015 23:46:07 GMT -5
Oil Dry sounds good, thanks for the tip. - Kitty Litter brings back memories of one of my least favorite tasks!
Not really sure what type of oil I'm using, was University Surplus, had a 'hydraulic' official tag on it, but no other manufacturer id, still sealed. $2 for 6 gallons - I figured it was worth that for chain saw oil. Low odor and seems to cut well enough, getting thicker with all the cutting. I'll do the mineral oil swap when it runs out I figure.
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Post by oregon on Oct 6, 2015 14:48:36 GMT -5
Had the Camera out for the contest wins, so here are a few recent cuts... helpful criticisms welcome. We're still at the stage of cutting things open just to be amazed... Most of these are from within 20mins from home, Haven't figured out how to get all the oil off yet, Dawn treatment still left a residue, so you'll see the water beading in most pics... Jasper/Agate mostly, they just make you want to cut another slab to see what the patterns look like!
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Post by oregon on Oct 6, 2015 14:36:22 GMT -5
Thanks to Sheri for sending some wonderful slabs my way. Now I'll have to figure out how to use the flat lap... Pictures as promised, hand held, and some water glare... Can folks tell me what they are so I know? I have guess on a few, but a real novice... (Suggestions from other posts) 1 Jasper? 2 -Dendritic Jasper 3 4 -Leopard skin jasper (rhyolite) / Ocean jasper 5 Kaleidoscope Jasper 6 Rhyolite 7 Lepidolite Mica 8 Rose Quartz 9 Mexican Crazy Lace <p>
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Post by oregon on Sept 25, 2015 11:16:45 GMT -5
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Post by oregon on Sept 22, 2015 14:19:21 GMT -5
That's a hoot. Thanks. I'll post some pictures when they show up, Nicer to be a surprise package that way So do you know lots about Tajikistan? I had envisioned a pretty arid area, so the lots of rivers part kept me away from that region. I'll have to look at the Satellite images some more. I'd like to think it was all the hours helping the kids with Carmen Sandiego, but in the end, A map of earthquake activity & war activity allowed me to ask google the right questions, and led me to the page that seemed to describe most clues about the agates in sandstone. Amazing how hard it is to 'ask the proper question' sometimes! So, should Tajikistan really be on everyone's bucket list? Anyway, thanks for the game. I'd encourage everyone to check out the geoguesser site, it's really interesting to find out that different parts of the planet look similar in ways, and some have characteristics that let you pin point locations immediately. btw, Jasper is the 'town' just a few miles away - Good name for a pet (mine was a goose as a kid Cheers, Rick
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Post by oregon on Sept 21, 2015 12:45:38 GMT -5
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Post by oregon on Sept 20, 2015 1:05:43 GMT -5
were they in Mexico?
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Post by oregon on Sept 18, 2015 14:44:00 GMT -5
Were they in Panama? thanks for the fun also - maybe there should be a geoguesser for rocks! geoguessr.com/
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Post by oregon on Sept 17, 2015 13:18:46 GMT -5
Were they in Morocco?
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Post by oregon on Aug 31, 2015 23:51:06 GMT -5
Thanks everyone. Lots of range there but that's the way of it. May just end up on ebay for the fun of it. I'll clean it up and figure out what to do after the holiday. Gotta post a few pictures of some other fun cuts.
Wagon's for hauling rocks!
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Post by oregon on Aug 31, 2015 1:24:22 GMT -5
Hadn't seen that - Rockhounds must get cabin fever in the middle of winter...
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Post by oregon on Aug 30, 2015 22:28:21 GMT -5
Hi, I know this saw has it's lovers and haters. Just not practical for me to use in the garage for simple hobby fun, so I want to sell it. But as it's no longer available, seems hard to price. This version is in excellent shape, has seen very little use, has the trim table and even still has the scoring guide (what was that supposed to be used for?) It'd look even better if I actually cleaned it up. Felker blade had most of the paint on it when I got it, and I cut maybe a half dozen thunder eggs. Original pump, (which did seem under powered for thicker oil I was using) Anyway, I haven't seen any nicer versions. Any thoughts on price range I should ask for it? (Wagon not included Oregon, and It seems prohibitive to ship. Thanks.
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Post by oregon on Aug 28, 2015 11:42:16 GMT -5
The wood is from nearby Eugene, Maury Moss ( that was the first piece I picked up with only a touch of red showing) eggs from White Fir, and Crystal? You can see a piece of jasper from behind Ochocco reservoir in the back ground next to the maury mtn piece, the look very similar colors, but pretty different. Fun.
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Post by oregon on Aug 28, 2015 11:38:07 GMT -5
yeah, I hate to drill holes in things, so will take a while until I figure out what I want to do - I like that you have the motor below, seems like mounting it on the sheet metal part of the cabinet isn't the greatest....
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Post by oregon on Aug 28, 2015 1:50:46 GMT -5
Thanks for the help rehabing my LS-12 saw. Doesn't seem like the sturdiest vice, but I'm pleased, and it keeps the oil contained unlike my previous drop saw. Pretty new to the real rockhounding bit. Been picking up curious rocks for years, but when the teenager asks for a rockhounding excursion for a b-day gift instead of some shiny trinket - nothing to do but pack up the van and head out. We did a couple days out around Prineville in Oregon. Didn't do much homework, just took the library's copy of the gem trails and stopped by the chamber of commerce. Came home with a few lbs of rocks from the public areas and incentive to finish rebuilding the saw. Some pics below, Too much fun cutting these different things open! Might have to learn how to polish something soon. Saw rebuild wasn't too bad. The old LS-12 (has the detachable hood, and green color) needed a new arbor and bearings. The old arbor had two pressed steel flanges. The new arbor has one machined and I needed both to be able to tighten the nut down far enough - but that made for a 1/4" shoulder and put the blade further from the vise. So I chucked a thick enough washer in the lathe and cut the shoulder down to allow it to get a little closer. Imagine I should have ordered a new machined flange as well... My auto feed bar had a strange flat spot in it - still can't figure how that happened, but I made a split nut, chased the threads slowing applying pressure and it seems barely noticeable now. The autofeed motor was not working - the grease inside had hardened to cement, so cleaned and redid the Brevel motor, put it together and it ran backwards the first time! It's pretty close to 3rpm, slow but I guess that makes for a smoother cut if one's not in a hurry. Main motor wouldn't reach the plug in the front box and while looking at the connections in the motor I saw a bit I didn't like - good thing, that connection was on it's way out. Pulled another motor off the shelf and replaced it. Of course that one ran in the wrong direction as well when I hooked it up. Reversed the starting coil connections and got it spinning in the right direction. Blade had a bit of a bend, but looked nice and red like an old MK? blade, so I put it on spindle with and indicator and kept working things slowly back to true- Not perfect, but not bad. Fired it up and cut a brick and then had to decide what to cut first! Would like to see how Lortone hinges the new lids, but holds the oil pretty well when it's running. Addictive to keep cutting new stuff open - May have to do some homework and find some not so popular collecting sites for our next trip over ... As if there isn't enough fun stuff to do in Oregon all summer! cheers, Rick (sorry the google drive direct links seem to only quasi work for pics...)
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Post by oregon on Aug 16, 2015 23:23:21 GMT -5
Thanks for all the help - Putting things together this evening, and I'm a little baffled by the carriage bearing arrangement. I think I have all the nut/bolts & parts in the right place. Dark for a picture, but The saw is on its side. This is the underside of the carriage. There are three support points, each has a bolt with a bearing & three nuts bolted though a slot on the carriage and to a steel L bracket (I'll call this the 'bearing bolt') . This bracket has a threaded hole on the other face and the screw with a jam nut (I'll call this the 'adjustment screw') that tightens against the bottom of the carriage base. I hadn't looked to closely while taking things apart, but assumed those adjustment screws would cinch the bearing closer to the round bars to tighten things up. But those adjustment screws can only aid in pushing the bearings away from the round bar. So do I just tighten down the nuts on the bearingbolts to cinch things down and then tighten the adjustment screws to help support things?
I'm tempted to drill a hole in the carriage and have the adjustment bolts just snug up the bearings from the top. Bob's description above sounds about like what is needed here. I just don't understand why the Lortone engineers put in adjustment bolts, and they would actually work by bending the support tabs or such? Seems like it wouldn't have been hard to make this work in a much more robust fashion... Other than the carriage, I've cleaned up every thing else fairly well, have my dial indicator out to check the blade alignment after I cinch down the carriage. The blade is showing it's age, but seems fairly straight. Still less then $100 into the saw, so...
Oh - one other question - the bolts to hold both the pillow blocks on the arbor, and the bushings on the auto feed rod are way undersized compared to the holes in both of those spots - I imagine this is to allow for more 'adjustment'? Saw doesn't seem to have been modified/tinkered with too much so I think these are original bolts, thinking of upgraded them to slightly larger bolts.
Thanks for all the help. Looking forward to using this thing.
Rick
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Post by oregon on Aug 11, 2015 11:03:38 GMT -5
You can probably reuse your arbor shaft, just throw some new bearings on it and get to cutting! Hardest part is getting the alignment. Welcome! Tony That's what I was hoping, but I picked up the new bearings after this trip, and the shaft is worn allowing play where the front bearing rides. Front bearing was pretty bad, and it was locked on the shaft where it was worn, so was actually wobbling in the pillow support... Might as well do it right since I still don't have heaps invested in the saw yet.
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Post by oregon on Aug 10, 2015 23:41:34 GMT -5
Looks like I need to wait on a new arbor to take a slice into some of last week's finds. First time out around Prineville - need to find some spots off the beaten path, but we did ok for just using the guide books... Ochoco jasper Maury Mountain, Cattle stuck in the guard made for a long detour on some dubious roads, had to really work for any sizeable chunks at the main site... Moss Agate:
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