EdCaffreyMS
"The Montana Bladesmith"
Since a lot of the folks here have heard/read me speak out against the gas/spring cylinders as a tensioner on grinders, I thought I'd best let everyone know.... I had a situation occur recently, that has lead me to revisit their use. That being said, I now have one mounted on my KMG....just in case somebody walks into my shop and sees it on there.
For those who don't know, I tried these devices in the past, and it always ended in the failure of the gas/spring cylinder, within a matter of weeks, because of steel dust/debris tearing out the seals. This time I have a "boot" zip tied on, so we'll see if that might delay/prevent the failures.
It might not make sense to some, but my old tension spring was shot, and when searching for a new one, I found the only one I could get in the proper poundage was 1 1/2" longer than my old spring..... the additional height changed the angle of the tracking adjustment, and made it much coarser.... So to keep everything where it needs to be for the fine tracking adjustment I'm used to, I've relented and am giving the gas/spring cylinders another go. Here's hoping I have better results with the "boot" on it, then I had before with the bare rod showing.
For those who don't know, I tried these devices in the past, and it always ended in the failure of the gas/spring cylinder, within a matter of weeks, because of steel dust/debris tearing out the seals. This time I have a "boot" zip tied on, so we'll see if that might delay/prevent the failures.
It might not make sense to some, but my old tension spring was shot, and when searching for a new one, I found the only one I could get in the proper poundage was 1 1/2" longer than my old spring..... the additional height changed the angle of the tracking adjustment, and made it much coarser.... So to keep everything where it needs to be for the fine tracking adjustment I'm used to, I've relented and am giving the gas/spring cylinders another go. Here's hoping I have better results with the "boot" on it, then I had before with the bare rod showing.