Another forgotten Unisaw project

[shoot summ]

Thought I would share my Unisaw project as others have, this one has been in progress for way too long...

Longer ago than I care to admit I picked up a cheap($150) Unisaw from a State Auction. A well used "801"(80's) series saw, no fence, 1 extension, single phase 1.5HP, no motor cover, and a butchered cabinet under the motor cover area for "dust collection". Brought it home, and pulled it apart with the intention of rebuilding it. It sat around for awhile and my mind wandered, I decided to fix the dust collection issue by building a chute inside. As I had acquired a wire feed welder it was a chance to build some metal working skills. We were using flux core, the welds were ugly, and we were getting the cabinet too hot causing some metal deformation issues. Other projects come along and the saw is pushed aside, I already have a Delta Contractors saw so no big deal.

Things happen, I convert the wire feed welder to gas, I pickup a plasma cutter, I get inspired and finished the chute, I also fill the dust door, the wire hole in the front, and the blade guard smile in the back. I happen upon a $100 Unisaw on CL one day, no motor, Unifence with some missing pieces on the lock down, "802" series(90's), buy it and put it in storage. My mind wanders some more, I start thinking about a "mobile base". I don't like the traditional mobile base on my Contractors saw, it hangs up on the small lip between my garage and driveway. I could grind a bevel on the lip and fix it, but that would be too easy.

My wandering mind takes me a lot of places on the base, a crank trailer wheel assembly, hydraulic jack, many different ideas and then it struck me, a pallet jack. So off to CL I go and that night I am deconstructing the new to me $50 pallet jack. Initial thoughts are to just use the head, and eliminate the forks. So the forks are removed ala plasma cutter, head is dissassembled, more projects come along and it all goes to storage.

About a month and a half ago I was trying to clean up my storage a bit, my kids have some stuff there, so it was a mess. I see the long forgotten Unisaw #2, drag it out, along with the pallet jack, and haul it home. Drag out # 1 and my mind starts wandering.

If I'm going to build a saw I want to try to incorporate everything I would ever want, on board power outlets, mounts in the cabinet for a folding outfeed table, etc.

So I'm inspired and I start to work. The plan on the base changes several times but is finally really close to the end result. Ends up I will use the head of the pallet jack on the right end. It had to be narrowed about 6 inches because I didn't like it being wider than the Unisaw base. I also wanted to try to incorporate the lifting wheels out of the forks, so I had a lot of restructuring to do. Ends up I cut the bar inside the head in half, shortened it, rotated the ends in so there will be a single bar actuating the outboard wheels in the center instead of one under each fork. I had to fabricate some bushings for the bar, found some existing bushings that just needed to be turned down a little on the OD.

I also start working on the cabinet, decide to lay some fiberglass mat in the chute area to try to smooth things out a little, and to also hide my previously ugly welds. I had forgotten how nasty polyester resin is, I've been working with epoxy for some time, but decided to get cheap on this. I have a little more work to do, but I have to remind myself this is a dust chute, it doesn't need to be perfect, gravity and suction will take care of it. Here is the chute:

I welded up some "nut plates" for mount points on the back of the saw for a folding outfeed table I will design later, there are 2 down at the bottom as well:

Here is the saw base, I cannabalized the wheel pivots out of the forks and built a structure to hold it under the saw in the base. The actuator rod will come in the center, still working though some of that:

Here is a mock up of the base with the cabinet, still working on fixing the cabinet, quite a bit of warpage due to my welding the chute in, I've massaged some of it with a hammer and dolly, filled some deep areas with fiberglass, then flattening and smoothing with with a thin layer of bondo. I also welded studs in place for the motor cover, and dust collector port, and filled all of the cabinet seams, some were welded, I fiberglasssed others.

I'm kind of a detail nut, so I do thing like fitting the 2x2 tube to the exising base, once fitted they will be welded to the Unisaw base. The angle iron is just there for reference measurements, square, plum, parallel, etc.

I'm going to add levelers to each corner, looked at the ends of the pallet jack forks and thought they might look nice for the levelers on the table saw base. My free hand plasma work *****, but I'm a good grinder...

Resources for Unisaw parts.

EBAY is a great place, there is a guy that makes a ton of new parts, kits, etc, "pd2bob" is his user name.

I ordered a stainless bolt kit, arbor wrench, wrench hanger, billet spinners for the hand wheels, and some other small parts.

I rebuilt the arbor out of Unisaw #2 as it was the better of the 2, the threads on the #1 looked a little abused. I chose Japanese bearings, NTN, $13 each Amazon prime. Rebuilding the arbor is super easy, just a little careful manhandling to get things out, some careful heat and a bfh in all of the right places to install the bearings and it is butter smooth. I miss my press, but this would have been the first time I used it in the the 10 years since I got rid of it.

I ordered new belts from vbeltsupply, 4l260 is the belt number(3450 rpm), I ordered the Kevlar versions(4LK260), $3.67 each. I was concerned that everyone indicated you have to have "matched" belts. I got the belts, hung the motor on saw #2, installed the belts and the new arbor, and the thing was super smooth. Well that is once I figured out the right way to tension the belts, it is not to make them super tight...

 

[bczygan]

Photos?

Bill

 

[shoot summ]

Photos?

Bill

They show for me?

 

[bczygan]

They show for me?

Not for me. Who is your host?

Bill

 

[Voi]

Thought I would share my Unisaw project as others have, this one has been in progress for way too long...

Longer ago than I care to admit I picked up a cheap($150) Unisaw from a State Auction. A well used "801"(80's) series saw, no fence, 1 extension, single phase 1.5HP, no motor cover, and a butchered cabinet under the motor cover area for "dust collection". Brought it home, and pulled it apart with the intention of rebuilding it. It sat around for awhile and my mind wandered, I decided to fix the dust collection issue by building a chute inside. As I had acquired a wire feed welder it was a chance to build some metal working skills. We were using flux core, the welds were ugly, and we were getting the cabinet too hot causing some metal deformation issues. Other projects come along and the saw is pushed aside, I already have a Delta Contractors saw so no big deal.

Things happen, I convert the wire feed welder to gas, I pickup a plasma cutter, I get inspired and finished the chute, I also fill the dust door, the wire hole in the front, and the blade guard smile in the back. I happen upon a $100 Unisaw on CL one day, no motor, Unifence with some missing pieces on the lock down, "802" series(90's), buy it and put it in storage. My mind wanders some more, I start thinking about a "mobile base". I don't like the traditional mobile base on my Contractors saw, it hangs up on the small lip between my garage and driveway. I could grind a bevel on the lip and fix it, but that would be too easy.

My wandering mind takes me a lot of places on the base, a crank trailer wheel assembly, hydraulic jack, many different ideas and then it struck me, a pallet jack. So off to CL I go and that night I am deconstructing the new to me $50 pallet jack. Initial thoughts are to just use the head, and eliminate the forks. So the forks are removed ala plasma cutter, head is dissassembled, more projects come along and it all goes to storage.

About a month and a half ago I was trying to clean up my storage a bit, my kids have some stuff there, so it was a mess. I see the long forgotten Unisaw #2, drag it out, along with the pallet jack, and haul it home. Drag out # 1 and my mind starts wandering.

If I'm going to build a saw I want to try to incorporate everything I would ever want, on board power outlets, mounts in the cabinet for a folding outfeed table, etc.

So I'm inspired and I start to work. The plan on the base changes several times but is finally really close to the end result. Ends up I will use the head of the pallet jack on the right end. It had to be narrowed about 6 inches because I didn't like it being wider than the Unisaw base. I also wanted to try to incorporate the lifting wheels out of the forks, so I had a lot of restructuring to do. Ends up I cut the bar inside the head in half, shortened it, rotated the ends in so there will be a single bar actuating the outboard wheels in the center instead of one under each fork. I had to fabricate some bushings for the bar, found some existing bushings that just needed to be turned down a little on the OD.

I also start working on the cabinet, decide to lay some fiberglass mat in the chute area to try to smooth things out a little, and to also hide my previously ugly welds. I had forgotten how nasty polyester resin is, I've been working with epoxy for some time, but decided to get cheap on this. I have a little more work to do, but I have to remind myself this is a dust chute, it doesn't need to be perfect, gravity and suction will take care of it. Here is the chute:

I welded up some "nut plates" for mount points on the back of the saw for a folding outfeed table I will design later, there are 2 down at the bottom as well:

Here is the saw base, I cannabalized the wheel pivots out of the forks and built a structure to hold it under the saw in the base. The actuator rod will come in the center, still working though some of that:

Here is a mock up of the base with the cabinet, still working on fixing the cabinet, quite a bit of warpage due to my welding the chute in, I've massaged some of it with a hammer and dolly, filled some deep areas with fiberglass, then flattening and smoothing with with a thin layer of bondo. I also welded studs in place for the motor cover, and dust collector port, and filled all of the cabinet seams, some were welded, I fiberglasssed others.

I'm kind of a detail nut, so I do thing like fitting the 2x2 tube to the exising base, once fitted they will be welded to the Unisaw base. The angle iron is just there for reference measurements, square, plum, parallel, etc.

I'm going to add levelers to each corner, looked at the ends of the pallet jack forks and thought they might look nice for the levelers on the table saw base. My free hand plasma work *****, but I'm a good grinder...

Resources for Unisaw parts.

EBAY is a great place, there is a guy that makes a ton of new parts, kits, etc, "pd2bob" is his user name.

I ordered a stainless bolt kit, arbor wrench, wrench hanger, billet spinners for the hand wheels, and some other small parts.

I rebuilt the arbor out of Unisaw #2 as it was the better of the 2, the threads on the #1 looked a little abused. I chose Japanese bearings, NTN, $13 each Amazon prime. Rebuilding the arbor is super easy, just a little careful manhandling to get things out, some careful heat and a bfh in all of the right places to install the bearings and it is butter smooth. I miss my press, but this would have been the first time I used it in the the 10 years since I got rid of it.

I ordered new belts from vbeltsupply, 4l260 is the belt number(3450 rpm), I ordered the Kevlar versions(4LK260), $3.67 each. I was concerned that everyone indicated you have to have "matched" belts. I got the belts, hung the motor on saw #2, installed the belts and the new arbor, and the thing was super smooth. Well that is once I figured out the right way to tension the belts, it is not to make them super tight...

I'm attempting to modify your Imgur links so hopefully more members can see them. Not sure if it will work or not. Other members please reply and let me know if they show up my quote above but not in the original post, or vice versa or neither or whatever.

Also subscribing to yet another Unisaw post. Mine is not forgotten and in some ways seems a nightmare I can't escape, lol.

 

[bczygan]

They are showing now.

Thanks!

Bill

 

[shoot summ]

I'm attempting to modify your Imgur links so hopefully more members can see them. Not sure if it will work or not. Other members please reply and let me know if they show up my quote above but not in the original post, or vice versa or neither or whatever.

Also subscribing to yet another Unisaw post. Mine is not forgotten and in some ways seems a nightmare I can't escape, lol.

What is going on with yours?

 

[Voi]

What is going on with yours?

I "rescued" a 1947 Unisaw from under a layer of ice & snow some years ago. It was in rough shape. I started to take it apart with detailed photos complete with written notes & pointers, etc.

The phone with the photos was later damaged & I couldn't find them on the cloud like I had previously. It was quite the mental blow & a valuable lesson.

I still have everything bagged & labeled, just don't have the detailed photos.

Only good news is that the original motor runs & sounds good when powered up.

 

[shoot summ]

I "rescued" a 1947 Unisaw from under a layer of ice & snow some years ago. It was in rough shape. I started to take it apart with detailed photos complete with written notes & pointers, etc.

The phone with the photos was later damaged & I couldn't find them on the cloud like I had previously. It was quite the mental blow & a valuable lesson.

I still have everything bagged & labeled, just don't have the detailed photos.

Only good news is that the original motor runs & sounds good when powered up.

Not terribly complicated on the assembly, some good diagrams on the internet too.

I'll have plenty of spare parts too if you run into something you need.

 

[shoot summ]

Update, a lot of little things being addressed, parts sorted, mechanism for the lifting wheels under the cabinet designed and parts ordered, working on the "body work" of the cabinet, and working on the modified pallet jack head.

On the pallet jack head, they are typically designed to still move when the jack is all the way down. In my case it will lower on to levelers, but I still wanted a solid base for it to rest on in case there were no levelers. In addition I had a void to fill from part of where the forks were, and I wanted to provide a consistent/level/plumb surface to weld the 2x2 connectors from the saw base to the jack head. So I decided to use a couple of pieces of 2x2 angle to to the job. Because I would form somewhat of a "C", and the bottom sits about 1/2" lower the PJ bottom I just drilled some holes and welded the angle to the PJ through the holes, filling the holes at the same time. By the time it is all said and done, it will be all welded in, but I needed the base piece in so I could take measurements and cut the top piece. Still need to finish the top piece on the other side, and then I will weld it all in, hopefully next weekend.

I also reconditioned the hand wheels and locks, and added the billet aluminum spinners from p2bob.

Last I took some unneeded parts back to storage, and picked up the Unifence rail. I could tell from other parts on that saw, and this thing shows it as well, that saw was "well used". Not sure what they did to wear the anodizing off...

I making other progress, hope to have additional pics to share soon.

 

[shoot summ]

Time for an update.

A lot of progress, but not much that actually shows. I'm probably about a week from putting the base together, just a few small things to wrap up.

To start with, since it was out I though I would show the modified pallet jack actuator arm. This attached to the wheel/jack, then a round bar connects this the the metal "head". Originally this had the small ears at the bottom outboard, actuating the rods that lifted the wheel in each of the forks. Since I was narrowing the head, and didn't need both rods I decided to cut this apart, roll the ends to the center, adjust the length, and have a single rod that will actuate the wheels from the forks that are now under the Unisaw. I mentioned this in an earlier post, there are bushings on the outboard ends, that were no longer there when I moved the outboard ends to the center. I found some bushings that had the right ID, and were a little big on the OD, so I turned them down and they work great.

The lions share of the work I have done relates to the mechanism under the Unisaw that will raise and lower the saw. It's tight under there and I had to get creative. In addition I will have levelers at all 4 corners, I'm using the ends of the pallet jack forks for the levelers on the Unisaw base which I think looks good.

On the pallet jack head I wanted the levelers to look nice too, not just like I tacked some angle iron on for them. I started those mounts last night. I started with some 4" sections of 2x2 angle iron, cut an angle on the sides to taper them a little, tacked them together, then rounded the end off. Probably not justified but I was a little concerned about the 1/8" thickness holding up the stress of the leveler so I added another 1/8" section(from the pallet jack forks) on top. I then cut a strip of 1/8 ", tacked it in the center on the rounded section, then massaged it with a BFH to match the rounded section and welded it all together. After a little time with the grinder and sander it actually looks pretty decent I think.

 

[shoot summ]

And the base is now all one piece. A little time with a grinder and flap wheel, and weld the other back leveler on, and it will be off to the sand blaster and then powder coating. I decided to PC the base since it is most likely to see some bumps, and PC will hold up to that really well.

I laid down some beads tonight that I was actually proud of, and then I globbed some that will need some grinding...

 

[lrhredjb]

Nice work. I also have a "forgotten Unisaw" in the garage so your efforts were a lot of interest to me. Someday I plan to use it. I purchased a used 52'' Biesemeyer fence to go on it as the fence was missing. In the meantime I am working on a Delta Homecraft 34-600 to replace my old Craftsman cast iron tablesaw. I have new arbor bearings installed and I will probably replace the motor bearings as well. A mobile base will be a necessity as I am working out of my garage

 

[shoot summ]

Wife and I took a week out of the Country to celebrate our 38th wedding anniversary on a beatiful beach. I had a lot of time flying and on the beach to think about my project and the direction I have been heading.

I had an interesting idea I am going to pursue on how I will treat the finish on the cabinet. I've decided to powder coat the base I am building satin black. PC is very resilient, and the base is likely to see bumps and scrapes more than the cabinet will. I can't PC the cabinet as I had to use filler and fiberglass in different areas. I thought about painting the cabinet, either bomb can, or taking it to one of the low cost auto paint shops(Maaco, etc) to have a single part enamel sprayed on the cabinet. Then I had my 30,000 foot idea...

Vinyl wrap is incredibly popular around here on cars. I have the clear protectant on both of our cars, and I see complete color changes on cars regularly. My Neighbor is the VP of Sales for one of the largest providers of the materials to the industry, his F150 was a "Hot Wheels metallic red" for awhile, now is the blue version of it, amazing what they can do, IMO.

So I thought why not try to wrap the cabinet? The material is relatively inexpensive, and I have some experience working with it, I ordered several samples, mostly in the gray/metallic gray, got them all in and I think the winner is "satin battleship grey" from 3M. I tried to take pics but the colors just don't show. Total material cost is $80 for the vinyl, I suspect the cabinet will take me a little over an hour to wrap.

Here is a link to the product, still doesn't really show how it looks in person.

https://www.metrorestyling.com/3M-1080-Satin-Battleship-Gray-Vinyl-Wrap-S51-p/satin1080s51.htm

 

[shoot summ]

Small progress here and there...

I need to place some mounts for the support of the table extension. I want to weld some square tube to the base, that I can place a square tube inside of that will be the "legs". I really needed to mock up the assembly with the cabinet on the base, and the tops in place to locate where the tubes need to be. I'm using the top to another Unisaw as part of the table extension, as well as a Unisaw side wing. I want to locate to the mounting holes in the Unisaw top for a good, solid mount point.

First the Unisaw top for the extensions is threaded, so I needed to drill them out on the side I am bolting to the actual Unisaw top. I just went slightly oversize, not lining up perfect so I will re-drill when I pull it apart.

Second it seems that the wheels and rollers on the (used) pallet jack finally hit their useful life and have started dropping chunks of their "tires" all over the floor. I already purchased replacements but had anticipated I would get through to the final assembly before I used them, not the case.

Third, the lift assembly rod had to be put together in pieces, I expected the additional pivot points to cause some issue, and have been working on a fix, but something related that I didn't anticipate came up. When I have the complete assembly elevated, and I turn the lift/steer wheels sharp one direction or the other, it all tilts sharply towards the front due to the overhang/weight of the tops. I looked at the rollers on the floor when it is tilted, and they are both in full contact with the floor, so it tells me the lift rod is allowing this to happen. When it all comes apart, I will work on modifying the rod so this won’t happen.

 

[shoot summ]

This project has been sitting too long, finally started digging into why the mechanism is letting the raised assembly "list" to the heavy side. It's been a lot of together, apart, check, recheck, and my best shot is the rod ends I used to connect everything under the saw are allowing just enough play to allow that to happen. I welded up some solid ends yesterday, hopefully will have time today to take it apart again and test.

To explain this as much as I can in words, I took an assembly that activated a rod on each side that pushed the load wheels down when the jack is raised to an assembly that pushes a single rod from the jack to a bar under that saw that connects to two rods that push the load wheels down. That bar has rod ends at each end and it allows that bar to "twist" under load. I'm certain the solid ends will eliminate that twist, just need to tune it a bit as the rods do have some up/down movement as the load wheels are activated. My poor attempt at paint hopefully illustrates this better than my words...

 

[StillTooManyHobbies]

It feels good to finally get back on a long delayed project. Best of luck to you. You are off to a good start.

 

[shoot summ]

It feels good to finally get back on a long delayed project. Best of luck to you. You are off to a good start.

Thanks, I've been on a roll lately knocking out some long overdue projects. Turns out the rod ends were the issue, didn't fix it the way I initially started to, but found a quick and easy way to lock them into place.