My New Work-A-Matic Bandsaw

I just picked this up yesterday. Its an original Parma Work-a-matic powerfeed vertical bandsaw. Working on hooking it up and getting it running. I have a bunch of extra blades as well that I really don't think I need. They are all 10tpi. Shouldn't I be using something like a 14/18 variable pitch for cutting stainless tubing bends and thinner sheetmetal?

Also Its missing the step pulley on the gear box. Is there a place that sells generic pulleys that I could combine to create the proper speed changes?

SM Racing said:

I just picked this up yesterday. Its an original Parma Work-a-matic powerfeed vertical bandsaw. Working on hooking it up and getting it running. I have a bunch of extra blades as well that I really don't think I need. They are all 10tpi. Shouldn't I be using something like a 14/18 variable pitch for cutting stainless tubing bends and thinner sheetmetal?

Also Its missing the step pulley on the gear box. Is there a place that sells generic pulleys that I could combine to create the proper speed changes?

Click to expand...

Ideally, you want 3 teeth in contact with the work piece at all times. By the numbers, even with an 18 pitch blade, you would be limited to a 3/16 minimum sheet thickness. Now, this certainly doesn't mean that sheet metal can't be cut using a blade like this. You must take your time cutting and listen to the cut carefully (it will be loud, but done overload the blade). Cutting sheet metal and stainless is very hard on blades, especially if its being hand fed. If it will primarily be used for sheet and stainless (thin), I'd get the finest pitch blade available. Variable pitch and wave set blades are a good idea for thin material. Also try and get bi-metal one if available.


McMaster will have most any blade you need, as well as the step pulley you inquire about.

I have been reading the Lenox Guide to Bandsawing. Great bits of info there.

Currently it looks like Mcmaster only offers the 14TPI straight pitch in 10ft blades. I guess I will have to look elsewhere on those.

I am going to keep at least one 10TPI blade to have on hand, but currently I cut down to .035 321 stainless for building headers and .065 304 for regular exhausts, plus I will cut .125 and up steel and aluminum plate. Since this is my first real vertical bandsaw (I currently have been abusing a crappy 4x6 horizontal/vertical unit), I am not really sure what all I will cut on a regular basis beyond the tubing and light plate. I assume I will find many more applications for this saw.

McMaster didn't have the proper pulley but they do have some stepped pulleys. I am working on locating this pulley:
http://pulleys.congressdrives.com/i...zinc-die-cast-step-cone-pulley/sca500-4x075kw

I could in theory buy all this stuff from Rollin Saw, but they are a little too proud of their repair parts. They sell the V-belt for $33 when I can get the same belt from McMaster for around $10, I bet the pulley would be around $25 if They had it as opposed to the 47 Rollin wants.

I love McMaster, most of the time.

There should be a sliding counter weight on the left hand side mechanism that is missing in the picture. Those are nice to work with. You can fixture and then feed the blade into the part.
There more for cutting tool n die blocks of steel kind of work. That's why you have those big toothed blades that came with it.
S/S = go low on sfpm

We used to have one of those at the old shop. Really nice saws. I could set up a part and just walk away. It's one of those tools that does the job of two fairly well.

NASTYZEN said:

There should be a sliding counter weight on the left hand side mechanism that is missing in the picture. Those are nice to work with. You can fixture and then feed the blade into the part.
There more for cutting tool n die blocks of steel kind of work. That's why you have those big toothed blades that came with it.
S/S = go low on sfpm

Click to expand...

The counter weight was removed right before the picture. I blasted it and painted it as the machine is getting a paint job ASAP. I hate the dirty white color and the Yellow. More pics to follow.

I have found the pulley, now its a matter of getting my hands on one. But that should give me the 75fpm I need to run thin Stainless tube. I also have a nice 14/18 blade coming to get me started. I should have it up and running by the weekend.

re: step pulleys:

Buy matched, balanced cast iron step pulleys if you can. Next best is matched, balanced pot metal/aluminum (but don't put pullers jaws on these -- too fragile).

McMaster and Grainger have some, but I've had better luck locating odd ones by putting up a wanted ad on owwm.org or talking to Joe at Plaza Machinery (who can be hard to reach sometimes, fyi).

Why Cast Iron over a Die Cast pot metal? The one that is on there Currently is a Die Cast Chicago single pulley. Do the Die Cast tend to break?

SM Racing said:

I just picked this up yesterday. Its an original Parma Work-a-matic powerfeed vertical bandsaw.

Click to expand...

One of the neighbor shops has the exact saw, and I've been trying to find one for quite a while. I never see them, nor is there much info on them, but they are really nice saws. You are very lucky.

So all that's left is the obligatory "You ****"

That looks like a great deal! Here's an info http://www.dakecorp.com/products-detail.asp?page=Work-A-Matic SXC I mostly use bimetal blades I got from sawblade dot com .

I found the owners manual for that saw, which is actually the Parma, just rebadged. It has some useful info and it lacks some important info. There is no reference for the quantity of oil in the gearbox and I can only find one plug which is labeled as the "check/fill" plug. So I am adding a drain plug in order to change the fluids. Plus the tech support guy wasn't much tech support, but he was friendly.

Currently I have a single 5in pulley so I only have one speed, I have located a cast iron step pulley and a die cast one, so weighing my options. Paint will be here shortly and my other parts for the cylinder rebuild are in so I have that rebuilt and ready to go back on. Can't wait to fire this thing up and start making chips.

It looks a lot like my scotchman glide in saw. They work awesome, I was able to order blades from fastenal here locally. http://www.garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=165724

SM Racing said:

Why Cast Iron over a Die Cast pot metal? The one that is on there Currently is a Die Cast Chicago single pulley. Do the Die Cast tend to break?

Click to expand...

Cast iron is a lot more robust. There's nothing wrong with die cast, except that they're often difficult to remove without breaking them. Basically, if they get stuck on the shaft, it's really hard to pull on them without distorting or cracking them. For this reason, I choose cast iron when there is a choice.

Both iron and pot metal/aluminum can be nicely made and balanced -- that's the most important thing when choosing a sheave. Cheap, poorly machined/non dynamically balanced ones are widely available, and they just cause vibration.

One more thing -- look for an AX series belt, and choose a cogged belt if any of the pulley steps is smaller than 3" dia. - you'll get less belt slippage this way.

Oh, that makes sense. I assume this is a good brand:
http://www.electricmotorsite.com/pc/pul_step_0750/MAS52x0750

Its about double what the die cast one is, but if its worth extra I'll go for it. However I doubt I will ever be removing the pulley in my lifetime, unless I some how kill the gear box on this machine. (I shouldn't, I just changed the oil and that will be easy to maintain since I added a better drain plug.)

Thanks for the heads up on the AX belts, the smallest pulley is 2in and the motor is hanging from a pivot point so there is really no good tensioning mechanism.

My new 1/2in 14/18tpi blade arrive today as did the orings I needed to rebuild the hydraulic cylinder. Figured it was a good maintenance plan while I was cleaning the rest of the saw up. Now if I can get it painted and re-assembled we will be making chips shortly.

My big problem right now is figuring out what paint to use. I don't want to spray it, but it looks like I may have to. I would rather just find a nice looking paint I can roll on. Fraid Latex won't be the best plan. Anyone use the implement paint from Tractor Supply?

Tractor supply implement paint had a good reputation a few years ago -- that's about all I know about it.

Sherwin Williams industrial enamel is a standard go-to paint among many machine restorers.

For something nicer, check out Interlux Brightside - it's a single stage polyurethane paint that can be rolled on very nicely. Many people are using it on their car projects. It's about as durable as you can get without breathing cyano's (or at least I don't believe it has any -- do double check).

I have the same saw I bought directly from Parma in 1993. My blade length is 117". I love the saw and it has never given me any trouble but I'm not a busy pro shop, just a hobby fabricator. My best steel cutting comes with quality 18 tpi blades. I wish I would have invested in a blade welder as blades are about double from when I bought the saw. Most of my work is with 4130 CM both plate and tube. I paid 2600 in '93. Dake gets quite a bit more for the same saw now.

I have had extremely poor results from TSC paint. I would recommend using a paint designed for machine tools, it will be resistant to oil and coolant. I have had good luck with Imron from DuPont as well.

I tried the TSC paint, we will see how well it holds up. Remember a vertical bandsaw isn't going to see the oil and coolants that a lathe or Mill might. I will report back as the tool is finally assembled and put into action. I did use a hardener to help with paint durability.

Can you apply Imron with a roller/brush? I didn't want to setup everything to spray this piece of equipment. That would have required a lot more work than I wanted to do.

I've brushed on Imron. It flows out pretty nice. Believe me, everything in a machine shop will get oil and coolant on it at some point.

She is up and making chips.

I finished reassembly this afternoon. Its all hooked up and making chips with my one speed (really slow). The new casters should be here this week and I will have the new pulleys in also that way I have all my speeds. Powerfeed works great.

I rebuilt the powerfeed cylinder with new seals and a little paint, that works well, just leaks a little out the vent in the reservoir. I am going to have to machine a better vent or some sort of internal deflector. I installed a torrington bearing at the bottom of the upper wheel adjustment handle to make it easier to get the proper tension on the blades. The blade guides were worn tapered in a couple of cases, so I turned those square again. They are undersized, but at least they are straight for now. I can get some new ones soon.

I ran a tap through all the holes in the table to clean them out and then sanded the table with some WD40 and 400grit, just to clean off all the rusty and junk. I also added a proper drain plug in the gear box. Once the plug was in place I refilled the nasty old fluid with some nice, clean Mobil 1 Synthetic gearbox oil. Its designed for industrial machinery.

Who ever owned this thing before, painted it. That apparently meant paint every bolt, slide, etc. Idiots. So I cleaned as much of the old paint off the hardware and slides, sandblasted what parts I could and painted a few things black for detail and the machine grey.

The TSC implement paint still seems soft in places even though I used a hardener. It will be interesting to see if it ever hardens up or just stays a little soft. I didn't paint the inside of the machine as Parma painted it with a blue enamel and it was pretty nasty inside. To do it right I would need to pull the whole saw apart and I really wanted to get this saw into action.

Looks like I will need two 2,3,4,5 pulleys for the speed control. Mine is missing both and the motor uses a smaller shaft than the gearbox drive. I'll order those this week. I have a new belt coming in some other parts I ordered. This will let me keep the old belt as a back up.

I have 6 brand new blades if anyone needs them. I picked up a 14/18 and under initial testing it works well on stainless header tubes. I am going to keep the old 10TPI and one of the new ones for thicker materials. Also need to build some sort of workholding vice to bolt to the table.