dwall174
Well-known member
I picked up this Famco 3-1/2 C in January of 2020 from a online auction!
The pivot/arm was damaged & it needed to be repaired, But because of the damage I was able to get it for $150. Considering what these arbor press go for I figured I could come up with some way to fix it.
Being the pivot arm was cast-iron I originally thought of trying to weld a new piece of metal to it with some nickel welding rod.
After checking around a little I decided to go with brazing a piece in-place. Being I don't have a large enough torch to braze something as thick as this
I took it to a local welder that I have dealt with before. I had already shaped a piece of metal to roughly fit the worn out area, So all I needed was to have it brazed in place. My local welder did a great job & even ground it to shape after brazing.
The arbor press originally had a square hole in the top plate that made it hard to get something like a shaft/bearing assembly under the ram.
I was going to just try cutting the plate with a angle grinder, But the plate is 1-1/4" thick & I figured that it would be pretty hard to get a clean cut on something that thick.
After thinking things over a little I figured out a way to get the plate to fit on my Kalamazoo 816 Bandsaw
Being the plate was larger than my bandsaw's capacity, I removed the rear vise jaw & used a clamp block in it's place. Then I tilted the plate to make cuts into the center of the square hole.
I'm still planning to disassemble it & clean it up and repaint it!
However for now it's working fine & I use it often.
Doug
The pivot/arm was damaged & it needed to be repaired, But because of the damage I was able to get it for $150. Considering what these arbor press go for I figured I could come up with some way to fix it.
Being the pivot arm was cast-iron I originally thought of trying to weld a new piece of metal to it with some nickel welding rod.
After checking around a little I decided to go with brazing a piece in-place. Being I don't have a large enough torch to braze something as thick as this
I took it to a local welder that I have dealt with before. I had already shaped a piece of metal to roughly fit the worn out area, So all I needed was to have it brazed in place. My local welder did a great job & even ground it to shape after brazing.
The arbor press originally had a square hole in the top plate that made it hard to get something like a shaft/bearing assembly under the ram.
I was going to just try cutting the plate with a angle grinder, But the plate is 1-1/4" thick & I figured that it would be pretty hard to get a clean cut on something that thick.
After thinking things over a little I figured out a way to get the plate to fit on my Kalamazoo 816 Bandsaw
Being the plate was larger than my bandsaw's capacity, I removed the rear vise jaw & used a clamp block in it's place. Then I tilted the plate to make cuts into the center of the square hole.
I'm still planning to disassemble it & clean it up and repaint it!
However for now it's working fine & I use it often.
Doug
