Unisaw Prepping the Table and Rebuilding the Arbor

My next steps were to both start the preparation of the table/wings, and rebuild the arbor with new bearings. Heres a shot of what the table wings looked like - note the multiple coats of paint, rust and marred surface.

You cant see it in the photos but if you look at my first couple of Unisaw posts youll see that theres a big chip missing from one edge. Initially I was going to abandon the use of that wing by using an extension table for a 52" fence. Ive since decided to go with a shorter fence as the width of the previous would make it too cumbersome to walk around in my tiny wood shop.

I cleaned all surfaces as best as I could using a twisted-wire cup brush mounted in an angle grinder. I then media blasted using Black Diamond abrasive purchased from Northern Tool (great stuff and only a little more expensive than sand, and the threat of silicosis is minimized). Heres the table after blasting and shown with a coat of primer. Done with this for the day (trying to prune up the yard to get ready for the Friday yard trash pickup).

I had already started the arbor dissembly using my bearing puller:

I finished cleaning up the rest of the gunk on my grinder equipped with a brass wire wheel:

And a few days later pressed on the new extended-race bearing purchased from Accurate:

I had already pressed on the other bearing into the arbor bracket using my thumbs:

And then supported the hollow area between the two ears using a twobafore and a couple of cedar shakes (the taper let me sneak up on a tight fit), tapping in the bearing with a soft-faced hammer until flush:

Its suggested that the threaded retaining ring be installed with a drop of blue Locktite:

And that a punch be used instead of a screwdriver:

At this point both bearings have been seated and the arbor is ready to be inserted.

I set everything down and prepared for the next phase - finishing up the arbor rebuild and completing the tables. Sorry about the disjointed chronology - all this stuff was going on in between other projects and demands on my time so its a bit spotty (didnt remember to take shots of the table underside, for instance).

-- John

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