Hi to
Mr.Jones and
grumpy,Mr.Jones, seeing that the machine is going to be stripped down to the bare solid deck chassis for your next rebuild, I was wondering if you wouldn't mind being part of an exercise that Grumpy and I have spoken about many times.
This would make for an excellent archive and may help many members and future members that have the situation of seriously bent and cracked rails of their Series 2 (twin rail) SB Model 45.
With your help, we could come up with a blueprint to enable a metal worker to fabricate a solid deck that could be retrofitted to the Series 2 chassis.
From my understanding, the Series 1 chassis is manufactured in 3 pieces, as Grumpy has explained; the only difference being between the 14", 17" and the 20 " is the width and length of the deck...the side plates being the same for all 3 models.
What this exercise would entail is, once the machine is stripped completely to a bare chassis, removing the 4 bolts securing the deck to the side plates. Clear pics at this stage will also help.
Once this is done, placing both the side plates on a sheet of plain paper and carefully tracing around the perimeter of the side plates.... and then marking accurately the position of the
all the holes in each plate.
This would then give us an accurate template of each side plate.
The solid deck would need to be accurately photographed and measured and traced on paper for width, length and the
underside for construction details...and whether the nuts for securing the deck to the side plates are captive and measured for their position on the deck.
On the
upperside, the position of the cutter clutch support bracket would also need to accurately determined by measurement.
It would be of help to get an idea of the gauges (thickness) of the metal used in the solid deck construction.
Just imagine how good it would be to come up with a successful repair schedule for the SB Model 45 Series 2 and the ability to end up with a better machine than manufactured by the Scott Bonnar later design team.
As an aside,
on a good score with this 17" machine, and that catcher may come in handy for a future project, or if you decide to sell, may help another 14" SB owner searching for one.
Looking forward to your reply,
