Counter balance for O/H pickup arm..

[Jim O'Dell]

I've got my overhead arm problems ironed out. It works, and it is pretty solid. I do, however, need to add a counter balance for the system. For those of you who have built your own blade pick up systems, or have an idea you think will work, how did you do your counter balance? What material? How did you attach it? Pictures would be a big help. TIA!! and have a great turkey day! Jim.

[Jason Beam]

i still haven't reached a final solution, but a 5" c-clamp is mostly working - it's not quite heavy enough, but it did the job. Depending on how heavy your rig is, you may need to adjust the size :P

[Jim O'Dell]

Jason, I was hoping for something a little more compact than that. Besides, I don't have enough clamps to spare one for this!! So, what I did was cut a piece of 3/8" all-thread to length, bought a box of 3/8" fender washers, and an acorn nut. Cut and drilled a piece of wood for the all-thread to go through, installed a T-nut in one end, and put a washer and nut on the exposed end, but recessed into the 1" aluminum tube. Then installed a bunch of washers 'till I had the right weight, and capped the rod with the acorn nut. DSCN1806.jpg It works great! Fired things up for a test run, and absolutely no dust left on top of the saw! I'm really happy about that! Now I need to come up with a modification that will allow the pick-up head to ride up and over my miter guage, and also the Jointech Smart Miter sled, and I will be finished with this project. Oh, unless I change out the 1/8" aluminum flat bar for some 1" U-channel or even some of the steel tubing I have left over to get rid of that last little bit of slop. But it is usuable now. Might get some shrink wrap to conceil the washers.
Thanks for following along and with the feedback you've supplied! Jim.