I purchased this saw at auction as shown above with 3 phase BHP motor for only $635 (US$350). At the time I was stoked - it was the first used cabinet saw I'd come across and at a seemingly very good price. Of course a couple of months later I picked up a Delta Unisaw in better condition for less money. But who's counting. This saw may not be that old (the serial number on the motor suggests 1990) but it is certainly well used. Or more correctly, abused. I believe the saw came from a mining company. I know a few people who have worked for mining companies, and from their stories, this saw got out OK.

While in reasonable mechanical condition, this saw was in shocking cosmetic shape. Above is a close up of the tables which were largely covered with wood glue. And some liquid nails, paint and who knows what else for good measure.

The previous owners were apparently unimpressed with the saw's factory dust collection performance so they sealed it up with plywood adhered with silicone sealant. It was like this all around the saw and it took considerable work to remove all the silicone before repainting.

I don't know what their problem was, this motor cover looks like it was collecting dust just fine.

Here's what it looked like after I cleaned it up. Scroll back up to the top of the page to compare to the before picture. Quite spiffy, if I do say so myself. I like the colour scheme - grey (White Knight's "Machinery Grey"), with black as a secondary colour, a little bit of blue and an even smaller amount of red. The nice thing about newer machines is that the paint is still good. I concluded that there was no need to repaint any of the interior parts of the machine. On the outside I just sanded the existing paint until it was smooth, filled a bunch of holes in the cabinet, then painted over. Had it been 50 years old I would have had to take most of it back to bare metal. The tables cleaned up quite nicely using razor blades and a maroon Scotch-Brite pad in a 1/3 sheet sander. The protective later gunk had prevented any serious rusting from occurring.

While I had it apart I found a couple of problems. First up, the poly belt had been running half off, probably due to the fact that pulleys were about one and a half "vees" out of alignment. Had the saw castings not restricted it, I'm sure it would have come off completely. As can been seen, the belt isn't exactly in the best of shape. A new one set me back less that the 3 generic "A" belts on my Unisaw.

The arbor bearings were in poor shape, particularly the front one that was close to seizing completely. Most new machines now use bearings with just a dust cap and it has been my theory that this is not an appropriate bearing for use of woodworking machinery since fine dust will get inside. Upon popping the dust cap off the worst bearing I proved my theory correct. Its not too clear in the picture but the bearing has significant amounts of fine dust inside which has essentially dried up all the grease. This is frustrating since the price difference for fully sealed bearings is very small.

With the belt and bearings so near death, I'm sure the previous owners were glad to see this saw go.

Oh no! Don't let anyone ever tell you its wrong to hit a spindle with a hammer. Its not. Well don't hit it directly, you need a drift of some kind. What will get you is not fully understanding how something is supposed to come apart. Having just the right press, puller or whatever won't save you. Above is the spindle pulley. I did look for a locking screw but the turned down portion of the pulley was not visible. I proceeded cautiously however the metal around the grub screw was so thin that it broke out with little effort. In fact it was one of the easiest spindles I've ever removed.

Here it is all fixed up. I had my father braze it up with the oxy at his work, then I turned it down flush on the lathe, drilled (farther from the edge than before), tapped, filed out the key way, then scraped the excess bronze and flux from the bore. I'm most satisfied with this repair, everything turned out just right (i.e. better than expected, better than usual).

Still reading? You're a trooper. The innards of this machine are quite different to that of my Unisaw. Every man and his dog has a Unisaw should he want to see how that works so I'll just cover this machine.

Here it is finished and ready to cut wood. By the time I'd finally got it ready to use I'd become confortable with my Unisaw so I snagged the starter and swapped this one for an Oliver jig saw.

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