I'm fixing up a recently acquired 2002 BC1000XL. I've replaced the knives and now replacing the bed knife (aka shear bar, it seems, according to Vermeer parts guy).
Manual says 1/8" / 3mm clearance to knives, using gauge tool, which of course is MIA. I have one on order from Vermeer but in the meantime I found a flat wrench that measures exactly 3mm with vernier caliper. My question is : how accurate does that gap need to be? I'm guessing that we're not talking NASA tolerances but after tussling with the thing for a while I got it to about 3.05mm on one knife and, say 2.95mm on the very end of the other knife (my gauge just won't quite fit through on the last 1/2" of bar). The shear bar seems to be a tiny bit out of true. I suspect there is some gunk that I have not been able to dislodge (can't see in there, haven't tried borescope yet...) that stops the bar from moving further back than the old one at that end once the bolt is tight. Should I just torque the bolts up and call it good, or monkey with it some more? I saw in an old thread someone talk about moving the bar to snug up to a shop-made gauge, tighten then remove the gauge. I'm not sure how to pull that off -- my gauge is very good at falling onto my face.
Manual says 1/8" / 3mm clearance to knives, using gauge tool, which of course is MIA. I have one on order from Vermeer but in the meantime I found a flat wrench that measures exactly 3mm with vernier caliper. My question is : how accurate does that gap need to be? I'm guessing that we're not talking NASA tolerances but after tussling with the thing for a while I got it to about 3.05mm on one knife and, say 2.95mm on the very end of the other knife (my gauge just won't quite fit through on the last 1/2" of bar). The shear bar seems to be a tiny bit out of true. I suspect there is some gunk that I have not been able to dislodge (can't see in there, haven't tried borescope yet...) that stops the bar from moving further back than the old one at that end once the bolt is tight. Should I just torque the bolts up and call it good, or monkey with it some more? I saw in an old thread someone talk about moving the bar to snug up to a shop-made gauge, tighten then remove the gauge. I'm not sure how to pull that off -- my gauge is very good at falling onto my face.