After the (kind of) successful fix on the Torque using graphite impregnated cloth, and some guiding comments I was inspired to try a more suitable solution.
Graphite Cloth
Rather than using a material with a built-in lubricant, I chose to use a slice of a thin plastic chopping board as a ‘washer’ between the two aluminium surfaces.
I don’t have a photo of it in place, but this is the remaining piece of the chopping board I used. As you can see – very thin. It has been working out perfectly – the tools angle easily, but without any tendency to slip.
Thin Chopping Board
The shadow (fwiw) is the top of Jessica’s trampoline – some reason I didn’t notice it when taking the photo!
A Torque Workcentre BEFORE I start modifying!
Filed under: Techniques, Tools Tagged: | Torque
hi Stu yeh Man that what I was suggesting , you are on the way to Correctingyour problems
Stu,
Having seen your blog on the torque center and you doing a course at Ideal Tools, I’m assuming that you may have used the Festool multi function table (maybe withe the CMS module). My query is which one would you go with. I’m hoping to set up a small wood working shed with limited room for big power tools. I would aim to use mostly hand tools but need some way of processing the stock to working sizes. I already own a few power tools from Festool (they are brilliant and worth every cent) including router and saw. So if this table was going to be the main way to dimension wood which way would you go?
Hi Stu,
The sort of plastic which is used for chopping boards is HDPE (High Density Polyethylene) which has an ok coefficient of friction however the density being what it is and the thickness, you will have to replace the plastic in no time.
What would be good is a product called UHMWPE (Ultra High Molecular Weight Polyethylene) which can be found at places like EPlas Tullamarine. It has a high coefficient and can handle situations like above.
Other uses for this product include fences, router plates and anything that requires a surface which is durable and slides well.
Of course, if you had deep pockets, you could go for PTFE (Teflon)!