1950's Craftsman/Darra James rebadged model 95 12" Cabinet Saw

jakemac said:

it must be craftsman cabinet saw day today. I'm trying to figure out how to get this one out of a basement by myself before 3pm. And then down into my basement shop later.

(estate sale photo)

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ctb said:

separate it into 3 components: Motor, iron top with trunnions, base.

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nine4gmc said:

damn jake, you too, both you guys ****!

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red leader said:

if that is a 'craftsman' saw that you picked up in that picture, that is not the king seeley/emerson cabinet saw, but the 12" darra james craftsman-badged saw.

It is, in fact, a pretty rare bird and has been floating on and off my quest list for a few years. I would love to have the perfect trifecta of vintage craftsman cabinet saws (atlas 9", king seeley 10" and darra james 12") but i think i still struggle with where i'd put the 12". Still...if i came across a craftsman-badged one at an estate sale i think my heart would skip a beat and i would be forced to, out of collector duty, make sure it made it into my garage:d

on that one, you can remove the aluminum side extensions and the back one too. However, i have not seen in hand how to get one apart more than that. You will have a bear of a time with that cabinet. That cabinet is solid 3/16" steel, i believe. It is a ******** saw. The elevation screw mechanisms are fairly often stripped from huge motors hanging off the back of the huge motor mounts.

However, i wish you luck! When you get some pictures of it, would you mind posting them on my thread (http://www.garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=103099)? I have been trying to document these saws and have come across about 6-8 of them. On the large craftsman logo on the front, there should be a 3 digit code, sometimes with an 's' prefix. I'd love to know that number. I assume that they were hand numbered and i've never seen one above 1000, meaning that they were c-man badged in fairly low numbers. They never appeared in the craftsman catalog. They might have been a test run that craftsman did and it was either short lived or just didn't work out. Did the saw come with any literature? I'd love to see what that looked like.

In any case, please tell the story of this one when you get a chance! :d

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jakemac said:

red - thank you so much for the info. I had no idea it was a rare model. I've been scouring the catalogs to no avail. Now i know why. Yes, it does indeed have a number on the craftsman tag.
It's #s477.


Family life has gone insane while i was making the purchase. So it may be a while before i can get back to it now that it's in my shop. I removed the motor (a 3/4hp 1725rpm Doerr 1ph dual voltage), aluminum side wings and fence guide (the fence has a cogged rail for adjustments) and then humped it up 9 steep steps (with my 42yo sister) to get it out of a basement bulkhead. It weighs a ton ! It was only about 8 miles from my house north of boston. i paid$150 for it (including the fence and miter gage).

In the meantime, here are a few quick pics for you. The screws were a little stiff from dis-use, but now move fine. I love the art deco pyramid on the base. In the last picture it looks like i'm missing a locking knob over the blade height adjuster. Do you have a picture of it, and should there be a wrench on the height wheel ? Do you know when these were made ?

There was no paperwork with the saw, do you know if there are any sources for repos ?

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jakemac said:

red - here's an ******* shot of the s477.

A few more crappy pictures can be found here -
http://www.garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?p=4859978#post4859978

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red leader said:

dang, thanks for the pictures! S477! Awesome! If i find one, i won't be able to turn it down! Great find.

While these saws were very rare for a craftsman-badged item, they are fairly common under their normal name, a darra james 95. Also, were somewhat common under the wards badging as well. Therefore, there is a lot of infomation on these saws and plenty of experts on them over at owwm. Because it is a rare craftsman item but not a rare item in general, there are a lot of spares and parts available.

Have a gander at this:

http://vintagemachinery.org/pubs/detail.aspx?id=183
http://vintagemachinery.org/pubs/detail.aspx?id=1938

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jakemac said:

Thanks Red. As for the VM links .................... I downloaded them last night.

The digital manual has a few pages that can be hard to read. I found a guy on ebay that cleans them up and prints bound repro's. They ain't cheap, but they're well done. I ordered one this morning.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/310388408017

Homestead - I need to apologize to you. Apparently I inadvertently highjacked your thread. I'm sorry. I'm going to try to start a new thread for my saw and copy these posts over there so that your thread can get back on track.

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