I purchased the machine as shown above for $68 (US$37)
at auction. Paul Call was an Australian manufacturer of small
woodworking
machinery. I've seen jointers, table saws and radial arm saws in
addition
to this band saw. I also have a pair of Paul Call pipe clamps. The
company
was registered in 1952 and I believe was in business for around 30
years.
I'd guess this band saw would have been made in the middle of that
period.
The pic on the right is from a 1966 catalogue and appears to be
identical
except for the large locking knobs. It appears to be of reasonable
quality
- ball bearings, and cast iron construction but with sheet metal
guards.
When purchased all moving parts except the wheels and thrust bearings
were
seized in place. The tyres were also gone. It seemed to have been used
in this state for some time.
I'd planned on this being a quick rebuild. It didn't work out that way for two reasons: paint turned out to be a lot more trouble than expected, and, band saws take considerable time to reassemble and set up.
Paint. My plan to give the existing paint a quick power wire brushing, then paint over. Upon knocking the paint off the first part I realized the horror that lay before me. A previous owner had apparently removed all of the visible paint, let the machine rust outside for what must have been years, then painted over with the red oxide primer. All this had been done with the machine still assembled, with many parts rusted and painted in place. The red oxide primer was very tough and resistant to wire brushing. I managed to get the sheet metal guard back to metal by giving it a few days in the electrolysis tank before brushing. The rest of the pieces I blasted except the main casting which I had someone else blast. The main casting had some fairly large casting defects so I filled them with some automotive body filler prior to painting.
It seems the band saw manufacturer put all their design effort into
utility and none into looks. I figured I needed to compensate with
fancy
paint. I'm not much of a fan of hammered metal paint but I have seen
something
in hammered black that I really liked. I went with the closest I could
find - "charcoal". Really it should be labelled "cast iron grey" - the
colour match is so perfect I often had trouble telling where I'd
painted.
How well the hammered effect sets up seems to depend on numerous
factors:
number of coats, thickness of coat, smoothness of the surface,
temperature,
gravity, phase of the moon and how you hold your mouth. I clearly
wasn't
holding my mouth right when painting the guard. As can be seen in the
above
close-up, the paint looks like ordinary dark grey with the rust pitting
adding a fine, unattractive texture. I though about stripping it back
and
filling with a spray filler but I can't be bothered. Too bad its the
most
visible part of the machine. Mixed results were achieved on the rest of
the parts.
Here's a close up of the most rusted area, the table top. If only the
hammered metal paint worked so well. You can still see some original
machining,
apparently protected by a glue drip or something. I was going to have
it
machined or ground but I couldn't find anyone close by that could do
it.
Maybe later, must get some Christmas presents made.
I spent considerable effort trying to find 12" tyres. I could have
ordered them from the US but I didn't care for the total price. After a
endless frustration calling every possible hope in the Yellow Pages, I
spotted on the Internet that Dewalt sell a 12" band saw in Australia. I
marched into my local power tool repair centre and walked right past an
import 12" saw shown above left. I ended up getting spare tyres for
that
machine for $33 (US$18.50). To fit, I
found
it best to fit the tyre to the rim, then peel the tyre back and apply
rubber
cement to fix it in place. I then evened and crowned the tyre surface
with
a some purpose made sanding blocks clamped against the frame and table
of the saw. This compensated for uneven tire thickness and wheel wobble
very well. The blade tracks very steadily.
Since purchasing these tires I've seen someone use a strip of rubber and Loctite 480 adhesive with great success and this will probably be my approach next time.
A few parts turned out to be brass under the paint. I considered buying
some buffing gear to get them all bright and shiny. In the end I just
gave
them a quick wire brushing and wax finish. Looks OK.
In addition to what was already mentioned, I:
