Hoorn
Well-known member
Several weeks ago I bought this Craftsman 12" disc sander.
I have dated it as 1958 for the following reasons. In 1957 the optional motor offered was a Dunlap 1/3 HP. In 1958 the optional motor offered was a Craftsman 1/3 HP. This motor is dated July 1957. Also, while disassembling the sander I found the original paint scheme to be power bronze on every piece. This happened for a very short time in 1958 before Sears switched to an accent color with the power bronze and would make the motor end caps dark brown going forward.
This was the condition when I picked it up:
This was one of the toughest restorations for me in terms of grime removal. I bought this from a machine shop going out of business and it had decades of oil, metal shavings and grime built up. For the portion underneath the table I was resorting to extreme methods of crud removal.
At any rate this was my first crack at Craftsman's split phase motor and I really enjoyed not having to deal with a capacitor and the excess of wires that it brings. I replaced the original New Departure bearings with Nachi and thoroughly cleaned up the copper windings. The motor runs virtually silent and is very strong. The cast disc creates quite a bit of wind noise and of course takes forever to stop.
One last note. As 11b mentioned in his classic Craftsman drill press thread, champagne mist is a dead ringer for power bronze.
In the picture below the trunnion still has its original power bronze paint. The lower trunnion piece with the red arrow on it is painted champagne mist.
I will also add that 3 days after the champagne mist dried, I applied a satin clear coat. The champagne mist only comes in high gloss and Craftsman did not paint their Long C/Heritage/Crowntop era machines with high gloss paint. High gloss has a cheap plasticky look to me on these old cast iron machines and is not era correct.
I have dated it as 1958 for the following reasons. In 1957 the optional motor offered was a Dunlap 1/3 HP. In 1958 the optional motor offered was a Craftsman 1/3 HP. This motor is dated July 1957. Also, while disassembling the sander I found the original paint scheme to be power bronze on every piece. This happened for a very short time in 1958 before Sears switched to an accent color with the power bronze and would make the motor end caps dark brown going forward.
This was the condition when I picked it up:
This was one of the toughest restorations for me in terms of grime removal. I bought this from a machine shop going out of business and it had decades of oil, metal shavings and grime built up. For the portion underneath the table I was resorting to extreme methods of crud removal.
At any rate this was my first crack at Craftsman's split phase motor and I really enjoyed not having to deal with a capacitor and the excess of wires that it brings. I replaced the original New Departure bearings with Nachi and thoroughly cleaned up the copper windings. The motor runs virtually silent and is very strong. The cast disc creates quite a bit of wind noise and of course takes forever to stop.
One last note. As 11b mentioned in his classic Craftsman drill press thread, champagne mist is a dead ringer for power bronze.
In the picture below the trunnion still has its original power bronze paint. The lower trunnion piece with the red arrow on it is painted champagne mist.
I will also add that 3 days after the champagne mist dried, I applied a satin clear coat. The champagne mist only comes in high gloss and Craftsman did not paint their Long C/Heritage/Crowntop era machines with high gloss paint. High gloss has a cheap plasticky look to me on these old cast iron machines and is not era correct.
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