J Miller

Veinurse,

If you'll notice in the pic of my Minnesota B, the front slide plate is an accessory plate with the accessory removed. What happens a lot of time is the slide plates wear as they're used and eventually will get loose enough to fall out.
So then when the machine is lowered into the cabinet out it comes. We see a lot of machines with missing slide plates here.
If you find your front plate, clean it and the grove in the machine, then test it. If too loose, put the back end of the plate in a vise and carefully put a slight bow in it. Not a kink, but a gentle bow. This will keep it in place.
Do not attempt to peen down the edges of the slot on the machine body. That is brittle cast iron and the edges will break off.

Jon gave me the heads up for an eBay auction that had Minnesota B parts which included a set of slide plates. I won it and now Minerva has a real front slide plate. But I had to put a bow in it to keep it in place. Not a big thing, just a fix for old worn parts.


Joe