A pair of BRA's

What could be nicer than having one Wadkin Bursgreen BRA?

Having Two !

One for docking to length and the other for trenching and halving or creating one off tenons and other stuff .

I got my first one 20 years back that was a Dewalt. Then later got the first BRA and cleaned it up . There is a bit of talk around the internet of how the radial arm saw is out of favour . I cant see how I could do without one .

The Second saw I got is an extended arm version so can cut roughly 700 wide . It was for sale in WA and I had it trucked over.
The only totally missing part was the height rise and fall handle.

I'm mounting these saws together and will show that later .

This is the handle repair .

I spotted a guy in the UK breaking down a BRA for parts . Brucekenethdesign on instagram . And after making freinds, asked if he would be interested in selling any parts. like the winding handle on top . He said it was half gone . I said Id take it " Please " and Id do a repair on it .

The first picture is how I used to have the saw set up .
The new saw is the one on the right . and it came with a blue plastic handle.

Rob

The handle from the UK arrived in the post and I got stuck into it and repaired it that same night.

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A decent size rusty bolt was just Mig welded to the shaft after grinding it back to fresh metal

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After some shaping with the angle grinder
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I had to do this bit twice because I rushed the first one and got it wrong . I welded the first hole and then welded a bolt stub down to a plate which clamped the handle down to give the right drilling angle. The thread under the drill bit just slid in tightly for support. An extra 5 minutes work to do it a way that worked.
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Thats just a big Bugle screw for the handle to spin on. Nice hard steel in them .
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A bit of Walnut for the copy of the black plastic handle I dont have .

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I stained the Walnut Black slid it on and gave it a blob of weld in the top . I had a little paint left over from my first BRA restoration job so brushed that on .
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Job done and I was happy .

I did have nickle rods as well which would have been a better weld I think but thought Id see how the MIG weld held and Its doing well . My stick welder is a noisy generator welder so I was avoiding using it for such a small weld.

Ill put up more saw pictures later . Its close to being finished and put to work .

Rob

I spy with my little eye a DR door

Quote:

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Originally Posted by wallace1973

I spy with my little eye a DR door

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Yep, the DR is in bits waiting for me to re assemble it . I just attached a block and tackle up high for use with assembling the dust extractor so that is how I will be lifting those heavy DR parts back onto the machine soon.

Hi Rob,
Looks good, nice fix.

You got this big new shed and you are going to run out of space real soon at this rte!

Have fun,
Alli

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Originally Posted by Allison74

Hi Rob,
Looks good, nice fix.

You got this big new shed and you are going to run out of space real soon at this rte!

Have fun,
Alli

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Yeah that's right Alli, I can see it coming already.

Rob

I welded the two saws onto a common base with adjustable feet . Made up a wooden top to go across the two of them and a big fence . The whole lot can be moved with a pallet jack like this . Cutting things to length is more important than trenching so any trenching will be done on a raised section that can be seen sitting in place. The tape measure in the fence worked pretty well and I'm in love with it . Im going to be using this off the wall and keeping access to the back of the saws for raising and lowering rather than having to climb up on the saws. Im also going to be welding shelves to the back and hope to put some lights on it as well . Bought a new 355mm negative rake blade which is a first for me on these saws and it works great , I should have done it years ago . I Ripped the huge fence down to size on the PK. I love the PK . Im keeping a dedicated rip blade in the PK and about to buy a 18" blade for it . It has a 16" Rip ATM . The old style trenching head is a nice thing as well . takes a little getting over the sight of the thing and I wouldn't like to experience a grab of the timber with it . I bet the Bldy thing grabs with some force if you did the wrong thing with it . I made a new Red Gum stop block and modified a Dawn clamp and thats working good as well.

Rob

That looks like a great setup with the two BRAs. Nice big worktop. I see the pile of wood shavings is gathering depth (I hope you've finished welding :q).

I'm also interested to see what ripping blade you buy for the PK. I've been agonizing over whether to buy a ripping blade for mine.

Cheers, Vann.

I bought the large Domino when moving down here thinking that because all machines were off line for a while I may need it . Its come in handy for a few things and I used it on the Top for these saws. I ran up some 10mm thick softwood floating tenons to use with it after reading about a guy doing it where you don't go machining the round edges into them like the domino. You just make them a smidge smaller in width so glue squeezes out the ends. And just pound them in so the softwood corners compress. This works well , these ones are about 35 x 10 . The worktop for the saw is 30 thick .

I got the Blade for the BRA from Carbitool in Melbourne . A 14" blade for about $170 . I thought that was pretty good . Its a Swiss Blade. I think the 18" is about $250 .

Vann , do you like my floating tenon holder ??
Ha , I just realized when looking at the posted pictures :)

Rob

Quote:

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Originally Posted by auscab

...Vann , do you like my floating tenon holder ??
Ha , I just realized when looking at the posted pictures :)...

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Well I guess if the trenching head is staying permanently on on BRA then the box is surplus. You'll have to stack them better if you want to slide the lid back on :D.

Cheers, Vann.

That's a nice looking collection of wadkin you have there, with plenty of room to boot as well. I have a trenching head for my CK, I've never experienced a grab even when taking biggish bites

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Originally Posted by wallace1973

That's a nice looking collection of wadkin you have there, with plenty of room to boot as well. I have a trenching head for my CK, I've never experienced a grab even when taking biggish bites

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Thanks Mark . The shed and Wadkin set up is getting better. Ive just had a third re arrangement since getting them in . A bit closer to how I want to work each time I do it.

I used to get a bit of self feeding or grabbing with just a standard blade fitted for cutting. The negative rake one I just got is heaps better.
Good to know it hasn't happened to you , is yours a Wadkin head like I'm using ?

Just looking at the blade angle I reckon if I tried it could be made to grab / self feed . Nothing wrong if it does, or can be done . When the old style cutting blades used to do it, I was so used to it I didn't care at all except for the wasted time and that it threw a finely tuned set up on the saw out of whack.

Its just the, not knowing what to expect thing about it . Maybe I should set up a test and try to get it to happen and then I'll feel happy about it :)

Rob

Ive wanted to line these two up for a picture and had the chance today.
Just for a visual comparison .

The Wadkin Bursgreen 10 AGS up next to the Wadkin PK.
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Rob

Yes mines a wadkin one I'm sure it says BRA on the wooden box. Looks like gun metal. I wasn't sure how to tune them up but Jack has a few videos detailing the process. I suppose if you tried using it when blunt things could get hairy.