Table Saw Bell Cranks -2 -

[Bent]

MAKING BELL CRANKS WITH THE TABLE SAW
-2-
Now it is time to cut a clearance cut for the top of the “shoe” (shoe being the slot for the shaft)
Make sure saw is unplugged. Take all the dado blades off except for the one full blade.
Line up the work piece as before, but now with the spacer positioned above the 3/8” slot plus 1/8” for the shoe top, like this:

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Except that you have to line up the spacer surface with the top of the 3/8” slot. ( in other words, on the picture the work piece had to be pushed into the jig by about 1/8”)
Tighten up the nuts securely.
This is only a 1/8” wide cut so you can now cut a depth of 3/16”. This is a ½ turn on my saw. Again, this being your first crank, “creep up” on the cut. This is to be 3/8” deep. Why you make this one cut will make sense a bit later.
You take the crank out of the jig.
You now mark the width of the body of the crank which is ¾”. You now cut off the excess with the band saw, like this:

Z-trimWbandsaw.jpg (45.8 KiB) Viewed 1651 times

…where I have cut to length but not yet to width. You can barely see the line that goes lengthwise down to the cut for the top of the shoe. Make this cut out with a 1/16” or so to spare. You will be trimming this with the table saw in order to make a nice finished cut.


Now you clamp the piece back in the jig, where you have cut out a slot in the jig to receive the crank and to make an accurate cut. Your saw can make this trim cut in one pass. You set the blade to just below the cut you made for the top of the shoe:

Z-trim~edge.jpg (41.4 KiB) Viewed 1651 times

The 3rd installment will deal with drilling holes for the rod pullers and cutting the slit down the middle of the crank