Thread: New (to me) Wadkin BRA

Nice saw.
From here it looks like the blade possibly isn’t negative rake . I ran a blade like that for some time and when I swapped to negative rake it made a big difference. Much much better on cutting the thicker material.

Originally Posted by Charlie_6ft

...Mark (furnmansmachinery) did make a comment "Looks like it has holes to take a pin instead of a key way ? Normally they have a key way fitted on the spindle??" - will take a look today and see if the trenching head is usable...

The 9" trenching heads for the CK use pin drive.
The 8.5" trenching heads I sent Auscab for his BRA also were drilled for pin drive. I see he has fitted them to his BRA, but I can't tell if he's using pin drive, or just friction, to hold them in place. I would guess that friction alone wouldn't be enough to stop them moving on the spindle.

Are your trenching heads 8.5" or 9"?

Cheers, Vann.

I dont use a pin . Just friction from a well tightened nut seems good. Same with the PK. The nuts run in a self tightening direction with the blade rotation so I’ve never heard of blades coming loose.
I did have a blade come loose once on another smaller table saw. The nut hadn’t been tightened correctly after a blade change. There was just a rattling sound and a slight wobble to the blade. Nothing major.
Once a long time ago I fitted an old HSS thin kerf circular saw blade to my table saw and the set of the teeth wasn’t right. Not enough set. The blade overheated doing a cut and in front of my eyes it expanded and went very wobbly. Now that scared the S### out of me! I thought it may fly apart. I didn’t try that again.

Rob

Originally Posted by Charlie_6ft

...will take a look today and see if the trenching head is usable...

Does your BRA have a tapped hole for a drive pin in the inner flange?

CK 30.jpg CK 349 with guard removed and drive pin installed.

CK 35.jpg Showing drive pin through trenching heads .

Cheers, Vann.

Thanks Vann, had a look last night no key way. The friction plates do have a pin hole so all good. Mine is the 8.5" ones.

WadkinTrenchingHead.png WadkinTrenchingHead02.jpg WadkinTrenchingHead03.jpg

Originally Posted by Charlie_6ft

...The friction plates do have a pin hole so all good. Mine is the 8.5" ones.

You're all set up then. The 8.5" trenching heads are the correct ones for the BRA.

Now all you need is a drive pin (or as Auscab says, you don't even NEED one). They are 5/16" diameter with 5/16" BSW thread on one end. If you or your dad don't have BSW dies (and assuming you want a drive pin) I could make one up for you in the next month or two. Let me know.

Cheers, Vann.

Great saw! I need to redo my table and fence, and put in some DC somewhere, but that's a job for another day. I wish I had a trenching head for mine too!

Originally Posted by Vann

You're all set up then...

Or not. You seem to be missing the spacers.

From the info I've found it appears those heads will do 11/16" housings - without spacers. With spacers they should do 11/16" to 1 1/4" housings in 1/16" steps - according to Wadkin literature.

By my calculation you'll need a 1/16" thick spacer, a 1/8" spacer, and two 1/4" spacers to achieve that. That uses a maximum of 3 spacers in any combination.
However Auscab's set and my set each only contain a single 1/4" spacer - so the maximum width can only be achieved using 4 spacers:
1/16" x 1;
1/8" x 2;
1/4" x 1.

Cheers, Vann.

Originally Posted by auscab

Nice saw.
From here it looks like the blade possibly isn’t negative rake . I ran a blade like that for some time and when I swapped to negative rake it made a big difference. Much much better on cutting the thicker material.

Definitely not a positive rake perhaps a neutral rake if thats a thing? It's from a guy who is a well accomplished wood worker he did mention the negative rake for any future blade purchases. The blade on it is a CMT from Carbatec (I think if I heard the seller correctly).

Have a collection of spacers I think about 5 in total. Thanks for the offer Vann - between myself and my dad we should be able to knock something up but will keep the option in the back pocket I did put a BSW tap & die set together a couple of months ago given my Wadkin obsession, tinkering & doing bits and bobs.

Anyone know what this things are? They were not done up tight and just hanging loose.

PXL_20240106_231634472~2.jpg PXL_20240106_231647055~2.jpg

Originally Posted by Charlie_6ft

...Anyone know what this things are? ...

I'm not at all familiar with the BRA. Could they be adjustable feet - for uneven surfaces?

Cheers, Vann.

Originally Posted by Charlie_6ft

Definitely not a positive rake perhaps a neutral rake if thats a thing? It's from a guy who is a well accomplished wood worker he did mention the negative rake for any future blade purchases. The blade on it is a CMT from Carbatec (I think if I heard the seller correctly).

It sure Looks positive. If its still got the blade he advertised it with.
They go off with a big BANG and jam in thicker cuts when its positive. like cutting 2 and 3" timber.
And all your carefully set angles get thrown out so it no longer cuts perfect 90 x 90 degrees. And it can take a bit of getting the blade back out of the cut sometimes.
You can get used to it after a while and attempt to feed slow and careful but it still happens, maybe not as much though.
If you want to check better take the blade off and lay a straight edge across the blade going through the center of the hole out across a tooth or just back from the tooth so you can see the straight edge and the tooth.

IMG_5180a.jpg

Well spotted Rob - I've taken another look ... I guess I'll be up for another blade
The blade thats on there is only 10" so am really keen to get something closer to to 12" or 14"

PXL_20240107_104716593.jpg

What do you run on your BRA? Size/Tooth count?

Yep my teeth are sloping back the other way from those ones. Ill get the details tomorrow for you. I think I went to 14" from what was a smaller blade that came with my first one. I got it from Carbitool in Moorabbin Melbourne . They post out. And its been cutting beautifully ever since. Not that I rely on the BRA for super accurate cutting. They are buggers for keeping dead true. I wished they had put out a saw that was machined true when made and non adjustable.