1972 Craftsman project, Opinions Welcome #12: Living with old tools

Late last year, before I put the saw away for the winter, a piece of the casting on the tablesaw broke. It was causing some vibration and the blade to move side to side a bit when adjusting height. Not good in conjunction with zero clearance inserts. Anyway, it is getting warm again and time to get the saw ready for what I hope will be a productive summer. The “key” as I am calling it had to be fixed. There are 2 parts that mount on a shaft and are keyed together you can see the missing key in the photo:

The 2 parts slid apart a bit to clarify:

Here you can see where the key broke off:

So, what’s a guy to do but fix it. I started by carving out a slot where the old key was:

So then I had this:

Then it was a matter of cutting a piece from some high grade aluminum I had laying around, a little bit of JB Weld and get it together. It is sitting and drying as I write this:

Next I will do a bit more filing and fine fitting…..hmmm….loose tenon joinery on a Tablesaw???

-- I still have all my fingers