WM MP200 setup

[Ljohnsaw]

Yesterday I spent most of the day installing the long in feed and out feed tables on my new MP200 I bought last spring from another forumite. Spent a bit of time cleaning off all the shipping grease and waxing the table.

Today, while waiting for my tractor battery to charge, I gave it a test run with a 4 foot piece of 2x10. When I was waxing the table, I noticed that the three strips of plastic, maybe Teflon, that are in dados in the cast iron bed directly under the two in feed and one out feed rollers sit proud of the bed. They are 1.5" wide, 1/8" thick and span the table. It appears they are stuck down with some double stick tape. One end of the first one is loose.

They protrude up several thousands. When my board enters with a square edge, it just stops. I razor cut a bevel on my board and it will feed but that's not right. I attempted to bevel the front edge of the plastic and that helps a little bit.

I'm going to call WM in the morning but was wondering if any other owners of this series (200, 220, 260) had this issue.

[Ljohnsaw]

They have one expert at WM on  the MPs. He knew what I was talking about. He thought there might be a replacement part that is thinner than mine and would check on that.

Short of replacing them, he suggested a palm sander or pulling them, remove the tape and stick them down with contact adhesive.

I pulled them and figured out what went wrong. The PO bought this back in 2021 and it's been in storage since. It spend a summer or two in central California in a shipping container.

The "shipping grease" must have liquefied and seeped down in the dados. It reacted with the tape and caused it to swell to 4 or 5 times it's thickness and lifted the leading and trailing edges.

I cleaned it all out and the plastic is now just shy of flush. I'll pick up som 3M double sided tape and make the final repair next week. Then on to knocking out some T&G!

[Ljohnsaw]

Used Gorilla double stick tape and all good. Processed 25 2x8s and 28 2x6s yesterday. Very long day. Today I processed 25 2x8s halfway. Cleaned up at 4:00. Here is the pile of shavings from yesterday.

The setup.

Some interesting grain.

[YellowHammer]

Nice!
Ain't nothing that a little duct tape wont fix.  

[DocGP]

Sweet!!  I love me some blue stain pine!!

Doc

[Ljohnsaw]

Last week I nearly had a catastrophic failure with the MP200. On the input side is an adjustable spring roller to force the board against the fence. Behind that, the board meets the side cutter. Just behind that is a wrench adjustable spring roller. Well, that one came unscrewed from it's plunger. It dropped down into the side cutter well. How it didn't get snagged by the side cutter is a mystery. But, I'll take it! There was a thin jamb nut that disappeared so I made one (metric) from a nut with a captured star lock washer. I love my little Craftsman lathe. There wasn't a lock washer on it originally, per the manual. Additionally, I put LockTight on the treads. 

The front roller had loosened on its shaft the day or so before. I think I need to check every fastener before I run it again. You would think on a vibrating machine they would have one of lock washers, nylocks or LockTight on every connection.

But, it does produce some nice stock. First, I rip all the boards to a consistent width. Then shorten boards that have a crook into two or more useable pieces. I found it best to cut the grooves first. Switch blades. Finally, cut the tongues. Sometimes I have a thicker board that needs to go through an extra pass or two. Maximum cut in thickness or width is 5mm.

I was able to process 50 16.5' boards in 5 hours.

[DDW_OR]

Nice!
Ain't nothing that a little duct tape wont fix. 

Duct tape is like the force
It has its dark side and light side, that holds the universe together.

[Ljohnsaw]

Update

Last year two of the three pressure rollers were binding up. I figured it was rusting up bearings. Everything was coated with shipping grease presumably to protect it from sea air when shipped from Poland. The bearings had no protection other than loose rubber seals.

I pulled them open last week and found this:

Very fine sawdust that looks oil soaked. It doesn't look like grease. These rollers don't spin fast at all. Just going along with the boards. Thinking of removing the lower seal on the new ones and washing out the lube, possibly using bicycle dry chain lube.

Ideas?

[Stephen1]

You have new bearings? Are their seals be tighter than the old ones? Can you just lube them with ATF.
I have always used ATF on the mill on everything. The sawdust does not stick to it, that what I was told when I bought my 1st WM mill 14 years ago. Any other lube they said attracts the sawdust. 
I'm sure others have some ideas

[Ljohnsaw]

Figuring this would be an ongoing issue, I bought a 10 pack of bearings. I don't have a parts washer so I was not successful in reviving the old bearings. The gap in the seal is less than a piece of paper. I'll give the ATF a try.

[Machinebuilder]

are they a double sealed bearing?

I have a hard time seeing sawdust getting into a quality sealed bearing.

If you can post the bearing part number.

[Ljohnsaw]

They are 6005 2RS.

I don't know what double seal bearings look like. These have a rubber "washer" that snaps in place. Tight on the outer race with a very thin gap on the inner race. Presumable so it's not rubbing and heating/burning up when spinning at high speeds, which in this use are definitely not!

Maybe someone ordered the wrong stock at the factory?

[Tom K]

That's a lot of saw dust to be packed inside a bearing, it makes me wonder if there is a dust collection issue?

[Machinebuilder]

the 6005 means it is a deep groove ball bearing 25mm ID 47mm OD 12mm width
The -2RS means they have a rubber seal on both sides of the bearing. (SKF codes other manufacturers may be different)
SKF 6005 bearing

There should not be any gap on the inner race. the seal should keep contaminates out of the bearing.

BTW once you pull the seal out it is ruined. these are a permanently lubed bearing.

I would make sure to buy a quality name brand bearing, in that application they should last a long time.

I wanted to be sure that a sealed bearing was used to try to avoid this problem.

[Ljohnsaw]

So there are three of these bearings. As you feed the stock in alongside the right hand fence, the first bearing tries to keep it snug up against the fence, pushing from the left side. It is almost touching the bed. That bearing is out in the open about 10-12" from the side cutter. A little bit of dust accumulates in that area. It is spring mounted and adjustable.

The next bearing is mounted high on cross rails opposite the side cutter on the right side of the board. Not a lot of sawdust build up there

The third and final bearing is past the side cutter on the left side. A lot of sawdust will pile up here when the ducts get clogged on occasion.

I have two ~740 CFM dust collectors. One pulling from the 5" top port and the other from the 4" side cutter port. I cut out the cross piece stick guards in the collectors and the ports as they would just clog up right away.

The first two bearings had the issue, not the third.

Would a metal shield be better in this application?