My CA related build log

[chereck04 10+ year member]

I figured I would post this in here since I will be primarily using it for CA builds. I came across this beauty in a craigslist ad for free, just had to drive about a half hour to pick it up. Its a mid 1970's craftsman table saw which was made by the Emerson Electric Co., the same people who make the Ridgid table saws for Home Depot. It has a 27" cast iron table and 10" wide steel wings. All the adjustments work flawlessly.

Aside from the rust & cosmetic flaws the only thing that needs fixed on it is the motor. Luckily, my uncle just happened to have a 220v single phase 1.5hp motor laying around. It will work just fine once I machine a correct sized pulley out of some turning stock.

My game plan is to restore the top surfaces by hand, then partially disassemble and sandblast it, paint it, and reassemble it w/ the new motor/pulley setup and a new blade. I have a shopfox fence and rail system to mount to it, and eventually I plan on replacing the steel wings with cast iron ones when I have the cash to spare.

Today was my first day working on it. I spent about 6hrs restoring the top surfaces. I'm gonna start disassembling it on Tuesday after work so I can sand blast it next weekend.

Just Starting, didn't have my before pic but you get the idea:

Getting Better:

Done for the day:

Let me know what you guys think. I figure I will have about $300 spent on it by the time I have it up and running, which is about $250 less than I would have spent on a comparable new one. In any case, it will surely be better than my old jobsite saw that only had 12" of rip.

Click to read more...

 

[Ellsworthz 10+ year member]

i think you overpaid...

 

[chereck04 10+ year member]

i think you overpaid...

I hope you're being sarcastic because I don't see how I overpaid for a free table saw haha

The only money I spent on it is $225 for the new fence/rail system and $35 for the paint. I still need a new blade which will run me about $40-50, but thats no biggie.

 

[fshanda 10+ year member]

Hope you got something like this for 225.

http://www.deltaportercable.com/Products/PrintableProductPage.aspx?ProductID=13582

That fence system is the ****. Used several of them for many tears and there is nothing better for the money. The fence you have on that saw now is crap. I should know I have one //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/frown.gif.a3531fa0534503350665a1e957861287.gif But I paid $75.00 for the saw with the fence. It works but it has a lot to be desired. Not having access to good woodworking tools is the only thing I regret about getting out of woodworking professionaly.

 

[Irongoats 10+ year member]

Got to love free stuff then make it your own, nice job.

 

[chereck04 10+ year member]

Hope you got something like this for 225.
http://www.deltaportercable.com/Products/PrintableProductPage.aspx?ProductID=13582

That fence system is the ****. Used several of them for many tears and there is nothing better for the money. The fence you have on that saw now is crap. I should know I have one //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/frown.gif.a3531fa0534503350665a1e957861287.gif But I paid $75.00 for the saw with the fence. It works but it has a lot to be desired. Not having access to good woodworking tools is the only thing I regret about getting out of woodworking professionaly.

I would love a Beisemeyer fence, but I can't justify dropping nearly $400 on just a fence. I considering the delta t2-30 fence, but I ended up buying the shopfox fence instead. They're both pretty much beisemeyer knock offs, but after playing with them first hand I like the shop fox better because it seems heavier. The shopfox rails are also a direct bolt on, no drilling necessary.

I bought the kit with two sets of rails - the standard set which gives 30" of rip, and a 7' set that gives 54" of rip. I'm going to be setting it up with the standard ones now, but eventually I am going to make a larger workstation that utilizes the 7' rails, something similar to this:

 

[chereck04 10+ year member]

Mini update:

Last night I disassembled it and got it ready to be sand blasted. Its raining today and according to the weather man its supposed to keep on raining til sometime Sunday night, so it will be a while until I can sand blast it. In the mean time, I went out and purchased new hardware (all stainless), a new saw blade (10" Freud Diablo 40 tooth), and most of the hardware to make a cabinet like I posted above.

Underside of the cast iron top w/ the saw mechanism still on it (saw mechanism has since been removed):

The cabinet/wings/legs & my fishing boat in the background:

Hopefully in a weeks time I will have it sandblasted & painted and have some more pics to post haha

 

[91Chevy 10+ year member]

Sweet deal. Looks a lot better //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/smile.gif.1ebc41e1811405b213edfc4622c41e27.gif

 

[chereck04 10+ year member]

Update!

I apologize for the agonizingly slow pace. I don't have a job right now, so I do work on the side when it comes up. I take all I can get right now. In the mean time I went out and purchased new hardware (all stainless), a new saw blade (10" Freud Diablo 40 tooth), and most of the hardware to make a cabinet like I posted above.

I did finally get some work done though. The day before yesterday I disassembled it and prepped it to be sand blasted. Heres a few pics:

Underside of the cast iron top w/ the saw mechanism still on it (saw mechanism has since been removed):

The cabinet/wings/legs & my fishing boat in the background:

Yesterday everything got sand blasted (sorry no pics) and today I put a coat of primer on them & let it bake in the paint booth for 4 hrs.

Then this evening I completely disassembled the saw mechanism itself and media blasted it. The bearings were still "ok", but I decided to replace them now rather than later on. After all, I really don't feel like pulling this thing apart for another 30+ years haha. There was some light corrosion in the raceways so I milled them out on my lathe & put (new) correct sized bearings in it.

Hopefully within 2 weeks I will have it back together. I still need to finish painting it, reassemble it, machine a correct sized pulley for the motor, put the new rails & fence on it, and put the new safety switch that I just ordered for it on it. Woohoo for safety -> LINK It is made so you can bump it with your knee to turn it off, just-in-case you ever get yourself in trouble.

 

[Juice+ 10+ year member]

Dumb question but what is a "fence"

 

[chereck04 10+ year member]

Dumb question but what is a "fence"

The piece that runs parallel to the blade, it is used during ripping.

 

[chereck04 10+ year member]

Back from the dead update! After a good 5 hours of sweating my nuts off in this lovely 93 degree heat I bring you my nearly completed saw. Lets start with some pics:

To make a long story short, I had to wait on custom sleeved bearings and thats what was holding up this build. It has been reassembled with the exception of the motor and switch. I spent a good hour squaring up the arbor with a micrometer, but it runs dead-on now (just a few 10,000ths difference). I set the vertical position with the micrometer too, and adjusted it so that when you put it to zero it is dead-on, no need to double check the angle.

I plan on mounting the fence & rails tomorrow, as well as wiring the switch and motor. Wish me luck.

** Just in case anyone notices, I didn't bother refurbishing the legs. I'm going to be making a proper saw table within the next few weeks so there was really no point.

 

[Mr. Slate 10+ year member]

Good job!

 

[atlninja82 10+ year member]

thats awesome man.

 

[Ken448 10+ year member]

you gonna get it metered?