Inspect twice, disassemble once

[Arcy]

My Dremel 1671 takes pin-end blades natively, but requires adapters for plain-end blades; however mine only came with one such adapter. I ordered a quick-change adapter kit which would replace the missing one as well as being a lot more convenient, and it arrived.

Yay! I can use the plain end blades! And drill holes smaller than 1/4"! Yaaaaaaaay!

But first, I need to install it. Doesn't look hard. Remove the top and bottom blade holders, swap a few parts, and put them back.

Hmmm. That's odd. The parts count in the box is odd. There are several duplicates, and more pieces than on the inventory list. Oh well. I'd much rather that than the other way around! A quick dry assembly seems to go well, although several pieces are reused from the original so I can't try that without removing the existing holders.

Ok. Top one comes off easily.

The bottom, not so much.

The kit came with a T handled hex wrench. A T handled hex wrench the perfect size to reach from the bottom blade holder to the saw's base. The perfect size, not to be turnable. Grrr.

Ok. No problem. I have a metric ton of hex wrenches around. Surely one will fit.

Set from the bicycle: no. Set from the ratchet screwdriver: no. Set from the cupboard: no. Set from the drawers: no. From the computer tools: no. From the Costco patio furniture: no.

A metric ton of hex wrenches. A ton of metric hex wrenches.

Under the stairs? YES! An imperial set! And one fits!

The clearance is tricky, and it's hard to get my hand in, and I can't make more than a tiny turn, but I didn't really need the skin on those knuckles, and it's enough!

The bottom holder comes off, and I can go do the full swap!

Except... that piece isn't in the "before" picture... nor is that one... and that one's missing, replaced with the after....

AAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRGGGGGHHHHH!!!!

After all that, it already had the quick-change brackets installed!


The only piece missing was the actual adapter that the blade goes into. The attachments for the adapters were already there (at least, they were before I removed them).

Fortunately the reassembly went a LOT more smoothly. The missing plain-end blade adapter is probably attached to a blade with the missing quick-change adapter under a cabinet in the garage of the guy I bought the saw from, but I still have the other and the new quick-change adapter (and the duplicate).

But now it's all set. Time to try some fretwork.

Tra la!
--Rob

[Gaia]

Ahh, the trials and tribulations of scrolling.

Glad you got it all sorted out and put back together.

Have fun using your pinless blades. Now you can do all that intricate fret work.

Bobbi

[Andy]

I must say Rob, despite the obvious hurdles you mentioned, I thoroughly enjoyed your tongue in cheek account of making the swap to plain end blades. It's going to open up new worlds for you. Thanks for the laughs and good luck in the new ventures!

Andy

[Forester21]

LOL Rob - That's why I give jobs like that to my husband to do! I would have quit looking for the right wrench and gone after it with something like a hack saw!

Theresa

[Ramjet]

Sorta like read the manual first idea . Glad to see someone else makes mistakes . One just hopes to learn from them . Welcome to the world of pinless scrolling .Cheers.
Roger

[minowevie]

Rob, now thats a guy after my own hart. he will go to any length to do the fretwork, that he dreams of. You can do it. , but. I will tell you. when I did that on my old saw. it was so much bother. that it wasn't worth it to me. so I upgraded. to a differant saw. sorry hate to crippale you. but it is a Big Dang Botter. ON my ole saw, I had to unscrew the top clamp. drop the blade, take the whole dang thing out. put the blade into the hole but then try somehow to put the blade in the top clamp, in the holder. what a bunch of crud for sure. If that would have been the only thing to work with, I would still be doing it. but I said poop on that. I went and got a better saw. and I am not sorry at all. it made my scrolling easyer, and happyer. just my opionion. your friend Evie

[jigsue]

I'm with Theresa - hubbie and son ... and I think it's a man thing to only read the manuals when it goes ends up!!!

Sue

[Arcy]

Hey! I read the manuals! Really! (No comment as to whether or not I asked where the wrenches were).

I have to admit to being sorely tempted by a pretty new machine. We were in Woodcraft Saturday and my wife mistakenly let me wander by the Excalibur display (unfortunately, "it's on sale" doesn't work as well when I say it ). She also pointed out that mine works well enough that I was up until 3AM playing the night before. Darn it. I managed to limit myself to some new blades.

All said though, I think everything's sorted out to the point where the tools aren't holding me back, and once I have enough practice in that they are I'll appreciate a new machine even more!


--Rob

[sawdustus]

Step 1 - lay out all parts according to the parts list.

Step 2 - if all part are present, read the manual and begin assembly.

If not,

Step 3 - call the company to request missing parts.

Step 4 - have a cold one while waiting for the missing parts.

Step 5 - start over from step 1

Learned the hard way many eons ago.

George