I do some woodworking and bought a Delta contrator saw back around 1995. I has served me well, but like most I wanted more power. I wasn't going to spnd $4,000 to $5,000 on a new cabinet saw, Jet, Delta, Powermatic, Grizzly or Sawstop, so I have been hunting Facebook Marketplace and Craig's List for most of the summer. Used Delta Unisaws go for $500 to well over $2,000 in my area with the lower end being fix'er uppers and generally older saws and missing parts, like the whole fence assembly. Newer complete ones are in the upper end, but usable complete saws are in the $1,500 and up range irregardless of the age. Same with the other brands mentioned. I have looked at adds for maybe a hundred saws, looking at saws in my area and hundreds of miles away.
We drove out to see our daughter in the Denver area over Thanksgiving and in my spare time I shopped that area and found a nice 3 HP Unisaw for $900. I was surprised it was still available when I contacted the seller as most of the time when the price was right the saw was gone shortly before. We all hopped into my pickup and drove out to take a look. The saw was owned by an older gentleman and he was fun to visit with. He had a nice place with a large two car sized shop in his backyard. He was 85 years old and selling off his "toys". He said he just didn't have the interest or ambition to get out and putz any longer. He told me he also had a mill and lathe he has recently sold. We looked over the saw and I didn't even argue about the price and said I would take it. My son-in-law helped and we stripped the saw down as it wouldn't fit in the short box typical on most pickups these days. The seller was a bit amused when I told him I wanted to flip it upside down to haul it. They are terribly top heavy and actually haul very well this way. Fortunately the seller had a small forklift so with the S-I-L we got it rolled over and onto the forklift and into the pickup.
We got back home a few days later and fortunately the weather was great as I was concerned about the cast iron top getting wet. Since then I have been getting it set up the way I like. I bought a set of heavy duty castors and a bunch of steel and built a roller base. Unlike some here I am limited on shop space so everything in my shop has to be portable and this saw is over 400 pounds so the roller base has to be fairly substantial. I also like having a large out feed table so I built one to fit using 3/4" melamine covered particle board.
Here are the before and after pics.
Welding up the roller base
Finished! I did disassemble an paint the base after this pic.
![20211207_155509[1].jpg](https://www.garagejournal.com/forum/data/attachments/1417/1417686-13332d84cac70b0ee708e25da4726e17.jpg "20211207_155509[1].jpg")
![20211207_155524[1].jpg](https://www.garagejournal.com/forum/data/attachments/1417/1417687-79b821eee8900a3a5d456f2f39b7ea90.jpg "20211207_155524[1].jpg")
![20211207_155609[1].jpg](https://www.garagejournal.com/forum/data/attachments/1417/1417688-c89476c46f5f86be6ff0e98661d73815.jpg "20211207_155609[1].jpg")
We drove out to see our daughter in the Denver area over Thanksgiving and in my spare time I shopped that area and found a nice 3 HP Unisaw for $900. I was surprised it was still available when I contacted the seller as most of the time when the price was right the saw was gone shortly before. We all hopped into my pickup and drove out to take a look. The saw was owned by an older gentleman and he was fun to visit with. He had a nice place with a large two car sized shop in his backyard. He was 85 years old and selling off his "toys". He said he just didn't have the interest or ambition to get out and putz any longer. He told me he also had a mill and lathe he has recently sold. We looked over the saw and I didn't even argue about the price and said I would take it. My son-in-law helped and we stripped the saw down as it wouldn't fit in the short box typical on most pickups these days. The seller was a bit amused when I told him I wanted to flip it upside down to haul it. They are terribly top heavy and actually haul very well this way. Fortunately the seller had a small forklift so with the S-I-L we got it rolled over and onto the forklift and into the pickup.
We got back home a few days later and fortunately the weather was great as I was concerned about the cast iron top getting wet. Since then I have been getting it set up the way I like. I bought a set of heavy duty castors and a bunch of steel and built a roller base. Unlike some here I am limited on shop space so everything in my shop has to be portable and this saw is over 400 pounds so the roller base has to be fairly substantial. I also like having a large out feed table so I built one to fit using 3/4" melamine covered particle board.
Here are the before and after pics.
Welding up the roller base
Finished! I did disassemble an paint the base after this pic.
