Hi:
I'm a newbie to the group - please bear with me. I have a BP I bought a while ago and need to remove a broken knee gob - sounds like a common event. I ended up cranking the knee to the bottom and ended up turning the jack screw low enough to cause the miter gear to come off. then tried pushing up the bottom of the gib with a J bar (not a good idea). I've talked to lots of people about this. One suggestion is to remove the head, ram, table, and saddle and lay the column on its back. Seems like it might work - I wouldn't have to fight against gravity wedging the gib any more than it's already gone! Another idea was to drill and tap the top of the gib, put a bolt through a plate on top of the knee and tighten the bolt, hopefully lifting the gib. Seems like I wouldn't be able to get a decent sized thread in it, though.
Any comments would be welcome. Also, anyone have ideas of the weights of the parts (head, ram, table, knee, column; I might be putting this beast in my basement through a small (half door) vertical opening 4 feet up from basement floor and no tree outside to tie off to. Rock and rubble foundation, etc..