[0:00]Welcome back, everybody. Wow. Let me start this video off by saying, I didn't sleep well. I'm not in a particularly good mood.
[0:10]But, um, this is a little time sensitive, so we make it happen today. Um, yeah, so this video is going to be a little different than a lot of them.
[0:19]If you, uh, don't like any hearing anything negative, um, well, hey, you know what, this video is not the video for you, go click off.
[0:29]I got like 730 other videos or, you know, whatever. Um, so yeah, probably not the video for you.
[0:37]Um, if you got little kids in the room, hey, probably not the video for you. Uh, we're talking about saws today.
[0:44]Um, obviously there's these two saws here and, uh, this one is very real and this one, well, it's not real.
[0:52]Um, but we're still going to be talking about it because, uh, on the surface, they look to be the same.
[0:57]I thought they were the same as well and, uh, they're not the same. They're not the same at all. Uh, we have the Loretone TS10C and we have the Highland Park, uh, uh, rip-off version.
[1:10]Um, and, you know, that's, uh, kind of what we're talking about. I've heard a lot of reports lately of issues with these and now I'm seeing the issue first firsthand right here.
[1:20]And, uh, let's just hop right into it. Um, you'll listen to me chat.
[1:25]We'll hang out in the shop today. Um, but, uh, yeah, different kind of off-the-cuff video and, uh, let's get right into it.
[1:31]So before we, uh, get into to, uh, today's problem, I want to show you something about this saw.
[1:38]So you know, this is a 10-inch trim saw and it's, uh, well it's that's a popular size, right?
[1:44]Get the covers off here. Um, you know, basically, right? We got a motor.
[1:50]Motor has a shaft, we got a pulley, we got a belt, and then this is, well, the the bearings and, uh, the the arbor for it.
[2:01]Uh, I thought they would have been the same, you know, I was, I thought, hey, Highland Park probably got one of these saws and they just copied it.
[2:08]Couldn't be further from the truth. Um, let me show you how it should be done, which is this thing.
[2:15]Unfortunately, this saw is no longer made, quite the shame.
[2:19]This is the shaft that would typically have a saw blade and then there's another flange, right? We're fully sealed here, so, uh, this is a high quality industrial seal.
[2:32]And down here, you can see that comes through the housing, sealed off from the water.
[2:40]First big pillow block, a pulley, and another big pillow block, right?
[2:46]These are, uh, greaseable and user serviceable, high quality pillow block bearings and, uh, yeah, that's the way to do it.
[2:56]This is a little easier to see here. Um, this is my carpet wheel. Big pillow block bearings, um, with a shaft running through it.
[3:03]And they are held on with two, wait, wait, two set screws in there, okay?
[3:13]Like set screws, clamping onto it.
[3:16]So, these are very secure, very affordable and very bomb proof. These ones on the saw are high quality Japanese pillow block bearings.
[3:26]And, uh, if you have a wrench, well, you can take them off, put new ones on.
[3:31]Pretty simple. You can see how they're mounted up here, right? We got some big, uh, like carriage bolts with some, uh, rubber washers.
[3:39]Prevents any, uh, water getting out. Yeah, that's the way right there.
[3:47]So, this is, uh, Highland Park's version of what I showed you. Um, you know, often with them, the knock-off, well, it's a knock-off product, okay?
[4:05]Um, so, this is their version of the arbor with the pillow block bearings.
[4:08]Imagine the the saw, right? So this would be mounted on the outside and, uh, this goes on the inside and this is what your, your blade gets mounted to right here, right?
[4:18]So, we have a pulley. Um, and here's the problem.
[4:23]Um, so this, uh, belonged to a friend of mine and I'm helping him out here. And, uh, it had this nasty seal in here.
[4:30]But this is how they replace the pillow block bearings. And, uh, it's got this goop on here.
[4:38]This is like RTV sealant stuck to the outside of the saw as this low quality seal right here for, uh, keeping the water from penetrating into the bearings.
[4:54]But what happened is, um, well, I think it was slipping. Um, and we have an aluminum housing here, which is anodized, and you can see the bearings here.
[5:04]Uh, this one is very, uh, chunky to turn.
[5:08]And this one is entirely seized. And, uh, he sent this to me because he couldn't get it apart.
[5:18]And he asked Highland Park for replacement bearings and a seal, and, uh, well, they in classic Highland Park fashion, they sent him one bearing, okay?
[5:32]And one seal instead of two bearings and one seal, um, very disappointing.
[5:39]And on top of that, it is the lowest quality bearing possible, right?
[5:43]Like, this is just like a, it's it's cheap. So, the only thing really preventing this from like spinning in here, right?
[5:54]It's like a friction fit. That's that's pretty much what it what it comes down to.
[6:00]Uh, there's like a little snap ring that I already took off that kind of holds this all in place. But, um, very, uh, disappointing to see this level of poor construction.
[6:11]Um, we have some kind of almost burn marks here, and I do believe what was happening was, well, the bearing seized.
[6:19]This thing just was spinning there in place and nuked this bearing. Um, this is similar to what I've heard, uh, from everyone, basically, right?
[6:31]Like, that this is just a it's a bad, well, it's a bad design. Um, so, uh, step one today is to get these out.
[6:37]Um, there's no lip inside this to, uh, how to say it? There's no lip inside it to prevent the bearings from going in further.
[6:47]So, let's give this thing a measure here. Uh, so they pushed it in 8 millimeters.
[6:55]I'll better write that down. UPS should be delivering some new bearings for this thing today.
[7:01]Um, hopefully we can get these out. Uh, a couple of problems. Um, all bearings, even the most garbage tiered bearings are, um, well, they're hardened, right?
[7:12]Like the outside of this outside race is hard, and, uh, these are just friction pressed into this, probably 6061 aluminum.
[7:20]Um, so, we got to try to not destroy this thing as we take these bearings out and, uh, try not to destroy them as we turn, uh, you know, put the new ones in.
[7:30]So, for something like this, you need a blind hole bearing puller. So, we have this mandrel here, and as we tighten it, it will, uh, well, put it back here. We'll open it up and it pull, it seats on the underside of the bearing.
[7:44]And, basically makes it so that we can pull straight up from the inside out.
[7:51]And that's how we do this. Oh, this thing's, I hope this comes out.
[7:56]Like, I would be really upset if this is just like completely wedged in here.
[8:04]Um, very, uh, how I know, it yeah, we'll get, we'll get that thing out.
[8:12]Wow, that is, what junk.
[8:16]What junk? I guess we'll try the slide hammer first and we'll see if it nicely comes out or not.
[8:26]Um, but, uh, very sick and tired of all the people that defend this type of thing.
[8:37]You know, it's just like you just don't know better and it's stupid. It's completely, completely stupid.
[8:43]Okay, let's give it a go. That came out. Not bad.
[8:48]Okay, so that one does have a seat. Pretty cool. All right, there we go.
[8:55]Not bad, not bad. Often when you hear people talk about Highland Park, they almost sound like they're like in a abusive relationship, right?
[9:07]They'll be like, yeah, so I bought, uh, rocks from them, and yeah, they shorted me like two pounds.
[9:15]And then, uh, I bought a rock tumbler from them and it leaked.
[9:20]And, uh, you know, and then I, um, I bought a saw from them and it came with a burnt out motor or the motor, um, they, uh, it kept faulting out.
[9:30]Because they actually cut the the the wires going to the restart to try to get the thing to run and shipped it out, which is super dangerous, by the way.
[9:43]Um, but but I love them. I'm going to keep buying. You're like, dude, you sound like you're in like a like a in an abusive relationship, right?
[9:54]You're like, yeah, he, um, slapped me around. So, I called the cops. And, uh, yeah, they came to arrest him.
[10:00]So, I tried to fight the cops. Oh, and then, uh, I bailed him out, and then he gave me a black eye.
[10:05]You're like, when are you going to learn, right? Like, how many times have you got to get burned by this Chinese manufacturing company before you're like, I'm over it, right?
[10:14]Like, give me a break, you know? Like, I can just hear all the Highland Park fanboys coming in now.
[10:22]I'm like, yeah, but they're a growing company, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Like, it's just completely dumb.
[10:30]It is so beyond dumb. Definitely don't want to screw up their, the anodizing.
[10:41]I guess if we got to screw it up, we'll screw it up on the on the lip here.
[10:50]You know, it's, uh, just so disappointing because it doesn't have to be like this.
[10:55]You know, you don't have to reinvent the wheel, right? Like, just try to not be terrible.
[11:03]Um, I guess really, it's not even just all Highland Park, right? Like, I know, uh, Covington makes stupid arbors like this, which I'm just like, why, guys?
[11:12]Like, oh, speaking of Covington, um, buddy of mine has a Covington saw, had arbor issues.
[11:19]Goes in to take the bearings out. Sure enough, they are dirt cheap Chinese bearings.
[11:26]Um, what happened to? Hey, Covington, what happened to made in America, huh? What happened?
[11:34]Yeah. Can't trust anybody with this stuff nowadays. Okay, let's see if we can get this bearing out.
[11:43]I hope this one also has a lip. If this one has a lip, I'll be a little happy about that.
[11:53]Nope, we're sliding up in the vice. Okay, re-redue this thing here.
[11:59]How am I going to do this? Don't want to mush it. All right, this thing's coming out one way or another.
[12:05]I got the the puller on here. Uh, what's that? Give this a a go.
[12:15]Get this all nice and adjusted. I'm just, uh, sick and tired of it. Ooh.
[12:34]Moving now. Show of hands, who here has blind hole bearing pullers?
[12:43]Show of hands, anybody? Let's do this instead of, uh, you know, simple pillow blocks.
[12:51]That makes sense. Makes sense. There we go. And it does have a lip.
[12:57]Well, I guess, uh, they did one thing right. So, old bearings, um, the seal, and, uh, I'll get this thing all cleaned up here.
[13:06]Um, because, well, that's a complete train wreck.
[13:09]What do you say we do a little bearing inspection? Can we, uh, diagnose our issue here? Um, let's, let's grab the microscope and find out.
[13:26]I'll tell you this right now. A, uh, let's see, get this recording.
[13:31]Digital microscope is a very nice thing to have, um, for just such, uh, well, such a situation.
[13:42]Um, uh, well, you can read the name of the bearing here. I won't be, uh, reading that out loud here on YouTube.
[13:51]Um, but, uh, yeah, you know, it's just a el cheapo Korean bearing.
[13:58]Uh, like nothing special at all. Yeah, not not looking good here, for sure.
[14:05]Um, you can see, I mean, that, what is that? Is that is that just like the, this is the one that still turns.
[14:18]But you can see the slop in it. That is junk, junk, junk, junk, junk. And, uh, yeah, very cooked, very, very cooked.
[14:27]Let's look at the other one. Let's look at the one that's entirely seized. Yeah. This was definitely exposed to water.
[14:35]Because probably the seal failed. Here's the seal.
[14:40]This thing failed because this is a wildly inadequate way of preventing any type of water intrusion into something.
[14:52]You have to have something better than this. Why do I even have to say it at this point?
[14:56]It's almost, it's almost very ridiculous. Um, my concern is that these bearings, uh, rubbed on the inner race on the shaft.
[15:10]And now we're going to have some issues with any kind of fitment moving forward because you, well, you can see there. We got like some significant wear.
[15:22]We got some significant wear and, uh, yeah, I'll get all this all cleaned up and, uh, hopefully, uh, you know, we can salvage this thing.
[15:33]If not, I think the whole arbor is toast. Got nice and clean that is now. All right.
[15:39]So, uh, the thing that prevents water from getting inside this is this little seal right here.
[15:47]And what we have is this is a little spring seal, okay? So, there's a spring in here, and, uh, this gets pressed onto this arbor just like that.
[15:55]And that's the only thing. When this wears out, okay, you it's you're you're done. You're that's that's it.
[16:04]Um, that's that's what prevents the water from getting in. Um, it's, uh, you know what, keep this in mind.
[16:11]Hey, um, all of the shield tubers that are like, uh, you know, have a lapidary rock counting channel and they're like, use my code, use my code.
[16:24]Um, keep that in mind, um, that the only thing preventing this problem right here from this beloved company of yours is the like a 10-cent garbage seal.
[16:34]Um, and, uh, yeah, you know, it, it, you should be ashamed of yourself to be promoting such a poorly thought out junky thing.
[16:46]Um, hopefully, uh, UPS Man comes today and, uh, the bearings work, but never know, never know with this stuff like this.
[16:52]Um, in, uh, the meantime, I would like to, uh, talk to you a little bit about the lore tone saw.
[17:01]And, uh, the one criticism that I've seen of it, which, um, might be justified, it might not be. You be the judge, you tell me what you think.
[17:09]So, I assume that, uh, most of you don't know what much about welding.
[17:14]This, uh, saw right here was welded using a laser welder, and, um, the one criticism that I have seen, uh, of this saw comes from the CEO of Highland Park Lapidary, where he, uh, well, you can read it right here.
[17:31]He's talking about the that they didn't passivate their welds.
[17:36]So, basically, the passivating a weld removes this discoloring. Um, and then I've seen that paroted by a bunch of HPL fanboys.
[17:46]And, uh, really, which, you, you pick, right?
[17:49]Would you rather, um, have a cleaner looking passivated weld or a saw that leaks, um, this whole like cheap bearing issue, poorly thought out, uh, bad design, bandaid fixes, um, I would rather have a little bit of discoloring on my welds.
[18:13]Um, you know, uh, I would rather have a better designed tool that does not, um, break, that doesn't have issues.
[18:21]Um, then something that is marginally cosmetically better, but, uh, please, tell me down below, do you prefer something that is poorly designed, um, but cosmetically nicer or something that, um, is functionally better, but less, uh, cosmetically appealing, like this lack of passivation?
[18:44]Mailman came. I got some relatively decent SKF bearings made in Italy.
[18:53]Um, SKFs are, they're not the best bearings, you know, like they are, they're on the low end of name brand, right?
[19:04]I mean, bearings are like many things, sky's limit, you know, uh, you could, you could, you could get in deep with some bearings, you know. Uh, so, uh, they I I do think they will work.
[19:18]Um, kind of opened up one. So, um, one of these, I already have in the chest freezer in the house, and I think what I'm going to do is, uh, I'm going to run in and I'm going to get it and see if it'll just smoothly drop in because the fit on these is like, uh, very, very tight.
[19:35]So, uh, if I can save the anodization by, you know, not smashing a bearing in there with a press or the vice or whatever, well, that would be ideal.
[19:54]Um, but, uh, yeah, these, I think the, the amount of shrinkage that we can get out of the chest freezer might work.
[20:06]If it doesn't, that's fine. It'll get pressed in. So, uh, I'm going to run in and get it and I'll drop it in.
[20:22]Oh, so close. Nope. We're going to be driving that in. Let's see if we can, uh, give it a little tippy tappy here.
[26:03]There we go. Push the seal in. You also going to be difficult? Dang.
[27:12]I have to give this a little tippy tappy as well. I can see, uh, we're at the point here where there's a little snap ring.
[27:17]It's a little firm. I don't think that's much of a problem. Better than it not spinning at all.
[27:26]Uh, but, um, usually, uh, these kind of bearings once you, uh, really start the things spinning up, it will, uh, break in these bearings.
[27:40]So, we got our snap ring that will hold it all together and prevent this from sliding.
[27:51]The fun part of this is having it not launch across the room and losing it. Nice.
[28:02]Nice, nice, nice. Okay, so we got that. Pulley. Um, I got to get some set screws for this guy.
[28:11]So, what to say here? Um, it's a disappointing situation, you know?
[28:19]Somebody shouldn't have to have go through all of this because somebody decided to save $3 on some bearings and sheep out or whatever, right?
[28:30]Like, this more than three bucks. But, like, the bearings he sent this thing out with, they're probably like a $2 bearing for them and, uh, like a 75-cent seal.
[28:42]This could all be avoided too if they were just like, hey, man, take it off, send it back to me. I'll change out your bearings for you and send it right back, right?
[28:50]But nah, like, dealing with Highland Park, it's always a freaking nightmare, right? Like, it's a nightmare. I've proven this.
[28:55]I've shown the chat logs. I've done shown it all. Uh, it's just it's stupid. It's ridiculous, right?
[29:04]Like, the people that, like, uh, defend this type of action are also stupid.
[29:13]The shield tubers constantly pimping their codes and being like, go buy this stuff. Like, you know what? Um, you should pay me, right?
[29:21]You guys should pay me, you the YouTubers, because you're pushing this type of stuff, which means I fueled the emails and I help people, right?
[29:33]So, you're making more work for me, you're making money. Um, or all around, why don't you just pick a better company to align yourself with, or don't align yourself with any of them.
[29:41]How about that? Um, you know, like, I want companies to behave ethically and be sound, reasonable people about things.
[29:52]Stop selling stuff like this. This is a stupid, stupid design. Stop lying if you're made in America and you're actually not.
[30:02]Just be a decent person and a decent company. So, all right, I know a little bit of a different video.
[30:10]I'm going to clean up out here. I appreciate you guys. Um, catch you in the next video. It'll be more fun. I lied, I'm back.
[30:22]Uh, I was just talking to you, I got it held on with some tape right now.
[30:26]Um, I was just talking to the person who this belongs to.
[30:32]Um, you know, told him shipping this thing out, and, you know, one thing that came up, and I I just wanted to add this, right?
[30:41]I hope lots of people fix lots of lapidary machines because people get into lapidary, they don't think they're getting into machining and stuff like that.
[30:50]Um, I fix two types of machines, um, and I help people fix two types of machines.
[30:56]Old vintage machines, you know, stuff from the 50s, 60s, 70s, uh, 80s, 90s, old machines, you know, uh, companies no longer around.
[31:05]And new Highland Park machines. Those are the two machines that I help people fix. And you might be like, well, what about the other ones, right?
[31:14]Like, well, you got Diamond Pacific, you got Rhino, you got High-Tech Diamond, uh, you got Covington. There's a other makers of machines.
[31:22]Except when they have a problem with it, people interact with the company. They don't get ghosted by the company and then have to interact with me.
[31:31]Uh, yeah. So, I decided to add that, um, because, well, I think it's worth talking about, you know, um, that's what this is. This is us hanging out.
[31:40]So, that said, this thing's getting shipped off and, uh, catch you in the next one.
