Yeah it is going to be a Pope "Bitza". Haha! The shaft is too short but I have an extender that I always knew might come in handy some day. Threaded and double keyed so there will be no way it can come off. That will bring it down to the right length. Blades I tried are a bit long, so I will get some shorter ones with same diameter bolt holes to suit.
Finally freed up the height adjustment on the old base. Could not work out what the problem was for a long time. It would get halfway and no further. By the looks of the way people had been bashing and prizing at it with hammers and pliers, my guess is this was a problem for a long time. All of sudden I realized that a small rivet fastened to the side had come loose and was extending just far enough to get caught on the height adjustment. So I got the grinder and cut off the end of the rivet and it works really easy now. As I said, judging by the amount of old damage on the base from operators trying to adjust the height and getting mad with it, I am guessing this might have been a problem for a very long time.
