Wilton Az990 Band Saw Restoration/repair with?????

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A buddy at work had this older Wilton Az990 band saw just sitting in the corner of the shop. So today i asked what it deal was and if he wanted to get rid of it. He said he's had it for over 15 years and it works great other than the fact the saws' main pivot point cracked on one side  So then i ask him what he might want to get rid of it for and he tells me $50! I've been looking for a bandsaw for quite some time for real small automotive type stuff in the garage so i thought this would be a great deal so i went and pulled out $60 from the ATM and gave it to him and i had my self a broken bad saw. After i got it home i was able to see that this is the main pivot point of the whole saw and any movement there when cutting will make it impossible to achieve a straight cut. So as it sits its a large paper weight.So how would you go about fixing this pivot point? im assuming its cast steel. Are there special tig rods for cast? i dont have the broken off piece either Heres the main pivot point (for lack of a better term) that needs repair
Reply:Oh, you got lucky.  That's the easy side.I doubt it's cast steel.  So welding is out.You've got two simple choices.  You can braze the ear back up and then drill and ream to size.  Or I would do it by throwing the bed of the saw on the mill and machine off the old ears to get a flat surface.  Then bolt on a new piece with a hole in it.I tried buying a few saws broken like that a while back...My name's not Jim....
Reply:What makes that side any easier? Did the ones you fixed come out cutting straight? I think i'm going to go with the build up of the original tab using brazing as I don't have access to a mill. I would like to TIG it as the only A/O set up I have access to is at my dads which is a couple hours away. What metal do you think this might be? cast iron? How hard would it be to Tig? and with what filler?
Reply:Originally Posted by boostinjdmor i would do it by throwing the bed of the saw on the mill and machine off the old ears to get a flat surface.  Then bolt on a new piece with a hole in it.
Reply:Originally Posted by TTnicksocalWhat makes that side any easier? Did the ones you fixed come out cutting straight? I think i'm going to go with the build up of the original tab using brazing as I don't have access to a mill. I would like to TIG it as the only A/O set up I have access to is at my dads which is a couple hours away. What metal do you think this might be? cast iron? How hard would it be to Tig? and with what filler?
Reply:I said that is the easy side because locating a new hole on the fairly flat bed is much easier than working with the odd shaped head.I never got to repair any.  Somebody else beat me to them.My name's not Jim....
Reply:I don't have access to a mill so that cant be an option. But are you guys saying to grind/cut off both the broken ear and the intact ear and making a bracket bracket that will bolt back down to the base? That's seems easy enough if I can get everything squared back up. Im just worried that after cutting out the ears I wont be able to get everything parallel/square again and the saw will forever cut crooked.But that sounds a bit easier than sourcing some pure ni tig rod and build it up and then ream out the new hole exactly parallel with the old intact one.
Reply:Just a suggestion, you can go onto the manufacturers web sight and look up that model w/an exploded parts view.  Get the part (the bed) shipped to you.  I needed some cast parts for my 4 x 6 Central Machine band saw and had good luck.  Really quite inexpensive too.  Just my thoughts and experience,  Bob
Reply:Thanks for the heads up rhunt I went and looked and I think I found the same base for the my model although I doesn't state my model just phase "1 wilton band saw" but to me It looks identical and they say the cast base is available but they want $177+ shipping for it. Im almost inclined to get it but I just cant justify spending that kind of money on it right now. but I will keep looking around. Thank you
Reply:I had the same problem several years back with a Jet.I tried to weld it and the resullts were poor to awful and I gave up. I finally did what Boostinjdm said, milled the remnant of the pivot off and the bed flat, then made a new part.You have to take real care getting the pivot points square and at the same height , but that was not that hard.Maybe you can get someone to do the millwork, or you might be able to do it with careful grinding and setup.Here is what I ended up with and it has worked flawlessly for years.
Reply:Oh man that is exactly what I need! looks like you did a great job! maybe I can figure something out similar. We have some mills down at my old college maybe some professor might be willing to help me make one similar to yours. Looks awesome! thank you.
Reply:I forgot to mention that I put a large rubber bumper on the saw stop(the one that the saw head hits when fully upright).My saw got broken when I was picking the head up to use it vertically, it slipped out of my hand and crashed against that stop.Hope you can get it working.
Reply:You could always put the shaft in the good one and through the broken one then machine the new bracket to sit just inside the broken one assuring correct line up through all three. Good luck should not be too difficult.
Reply:Too bad you couldn't find some short pillow blocks from McMaster and use the good pivot to align everything.TOO MANY TOOLS & NO MORE SPACE
Reply:So after trying to find a local mill available to make the piece I needed, I took a stab at making on my self. I took some scraps I had laving around and threw this together it work out pretty well but I made the mistake of not bolting the piece down prior to me welding the mount together so then when I did go to bolt it down it was causing a bind that wouldn't allow the axle to spin freely. After a couple squares of aluminum foil in the right area left under the bracket before bolting it down and everything was straight as can be.
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